MS Dhoni, the former India skipper, is all set to return to the Chennai Super Kings franchise for the 2018 Indian Premier League after the IPL Governing Council cleared the path for his return.

‘An IPL Franchise is eligible to secure up to 5 players by virtue of a combination of Player Retention (Pre Player Auction) and Right to Match (RTM) (During the Player Auction),’ BCCI acting cecretary Amitabh Choudhary said in a statement after the meeting, reports the Hindustan Times.

‘The player pool available for Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for retention/Right to Match will be the players’ who played for them respectively in IPL 2015 and who were part of RPS and Gujarat Lions squads in IPL 2017,’ he added.

The IPL Governing Council also hiked the salary budget of the franchises from Rs 66 crore to Rs 80 crore for the next year’s auction, tentatively set for February. ‘The minimum spend will be 75 per cent of the salary cap for each season,’ the BCCI stated.

The player rules for the Right to Match are maximum number of three Capped Indian players, maximum number of 2 overseas players, maximum number of 2 uncapped Indian players.

Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were banned for two seasons from the Indian Premier League after some of their team owners were charged for corruption by the Supreme Court.

In July 2017, The Board of Control for Cricket in India said on Friday that Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals would be back for 2018 IPL.

MS Dhoni has been associated with Chennai Super Kings since the beginning of the Indian Premier League. From 2008 till 2015, he led them to two IPL titles in 2010 and 2011 and he entered the final of the tournament four times in 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2015.

Under MS Dhoni, Chennai Super Kings also won the Champions League Twenty20 twice in 2010 and 2014 before the tournament was scrapped. Following the suspension of the franchise for two years, Dhoni captained the Rising Pune Supergiant in the 2016 Indian Premier League and was part of the squad that entered the final in the previous edition, which they lost by one run to Mumbai Indians.

The player auctions for the 2018 edition of the tournament are slated to be held in February. In September, The Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights were auctioned and it proved to be a windfall for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). STAR India bagged the global rights for a five-year period for Rs 16,347.50 crore.