Former Indian skipper MS Dhoni could not find any place in the player’s central contract which was released by the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday. BCCI came up with the list as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah were named in the A+ category. Dhoni had played his last international match in the Indian colors when India faced a heartbreaking loss against New Zealand in the semifinal of the ICC World Cup.
Subsequently, Dhoni took a sabbatical from the game and decided to serve the Indian army. After his short stint with the army, Dhoni made himself unavailable for the national selection. In fact, Dhoni was expected to call it a day from all forms of the game after the World Cup exit but it wasn’t to be the case.
Retirement on the cards?
No place for Dhoni in the national contract is also the harbinger that his retirement can be on the cards. Indian team head coach Ravi Shastri recently made it clear that Dhoni will not play ODI cricket. However, Dhoni can return to the T20I side given the fact if he has a good season with the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League 2020.
Dhoni has not made any announcements regarding his future and it would be interesting to note his mindset after he is not named in the central contract.
BCCI Central Contracts for 2019-20
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Grade A+ (INR 7 cr): Virat Kohli Rohit Sharma Jasprit Bumrah
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Grade A (INR 5 cr): Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohd. Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant
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Grade B (INR 3 cr): Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal
- Grade C (INR 1 cr): Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar
On the other hand, Navdeep Saini is named in the Grade C category and gets the contract for the first time. Furthermore, Deepak Chahar and Washington Sundar also make the cut into the same category for the maiden time in his career.
Grade A+, A, B and C categories receives 7 crores, 5 crores, 3 crores and 1 crores respectively.
Here is how Twitter reacted to MS Dhoni’s absence in the contract:
No central contract for MS Dhoni.
— Akhil Gupta ? (@Guptastats92) January 16, 2020
How does one read M S Dhoni not getting a central contract? The BCCI giving him a clear signal, or mutually reached understanding? Remember, Dhoni hasn't retired and will play the IPL. Consider also he he hasn't stepped on to a cricket field since the 50-overs World Cup
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) January 16, 2020
can't really contract someone for a service when he isn't offering that service…
— Gaurav Kalra (@gauravkalra75) January 16, 2020
BCCI annual player retainership 2019-20
– No contract for Dhoni (as expected)
– Nice bump up for Saha
– Mayank goes straight to Grade B
– A+ for Kohli, Rohit, Bumrah
– Kuldeep Yadav stays in A— Ashish Magotra (@clutchplay) January 16, 2020
No MS Dhoni and expectedly.
It's Stumps, for him. https://t.co/eJtRlrwq74
— Nikhil ? (@CricCrazyNIKS) January 16, 2020
https://twitter.com/ShayanAcharya/status/1217728872734699520?s=20
Not sure why some seem to think this indicates something new regarding Dhoni. Fairly evident now that he's going to play IPL and see how it goes before we get to hear anything concrete. Don't think the contract list really changes anything.
— Vinayakk (@vinayakkm) January 16, 2020
Just heard msdhoni not given a contract by the bcci…. What is the signal that we are getting #Cricket #Dhoni #contract @StarSportsTamil @StarSportsIndia
— Hemang Badani (@hemangkbadani) January 16, 2020
So his career ended the same way it started. Poetic.
MS Dhoni (2004-2019)#ThankyouDhoni pic.twitter.com/jWzVojGW0V
— ` (@FourOverthrows) January 16, 2020
Again there is speculation. Frankly @msdhoni hasn’t played anything so he can’t be part of the contract. Does it mean he will retire- no. That’s his personal call. Frankly nothing changes. @BCCI right in doing what it has done and now MSD needs to decide if he wants to or not.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) January 16, 2020
Indian fans to BCCI when they heard the news that BCCI dropped MS Dhoni from their central contract list #Dhoni pic.twitter.com/dWg5Zd2Avc
— Subham. (@subhsays) January 16, 2020
If at all MS Dhoni needed an indication that his time is up, him being dropped from the Central Contracts list is one. #Dhoni #BCCI #contracts
— Nitin Naik (@toi_nitinnayak) January 16, 2020
And it's not BCCI drops MS Dhoni from central contracts. Its other way, Dhoni made himself unavailable in India midway in a series after playing last game in Ranchi vs Aus (with #Camo Caps) and CWC19 overseas. So he has dropped himself out of cricket for a while till IPL.
— Prabhu (@Cricprabhu) January 16, 2020
