Reports: BCCI reveal why MS Dhoni wasn’t given an annual contract

Dixit Bhargav | 16/01/2020
Reports: BCCI reveal why MS Dhoni wasn't given an annual contract

MS Dhoni wasn’t given an annual contract: The legendary cricketer’s omission from the retainer list has invited mixed views from the fans.

Veteran India wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni not being included in BCCI’s latest player retainer list has invited mixed views from fans across social media platforms.

Having last played international cricket in July, it makes sense for the board to not give him an annual contract whose period ranges from October 2019 to September 2020.

Dhoni had missed the West Indies tour due to his training for the parachute regiment of the Indian Army in Kashmir valley. While there was no official reason why Dhoni missed the home T20Is against South Africa, he subsequently announced that fans shouldn’t ask him about his comeback till January 2020.

MS Dhoni wasn’t given an annual contract

In a recent interaction with PTI, a top BCCI official opened up on why the BCCI decided to exclude Dhoni from the list and also made public that the 38-year old cricketer was informed about the same beforehand.

“Let me clarify that one of the top-most BCCI office-bearers spoke to MS [Dhoni] and told him about how they are going about in the central contracts. He was clearly told that since he hasn’t played any game in the said period [September 2019 till date], he cannot be included for the time being,” the source was quoted as saying to PTI.

Among the other players who have failed to earn an contract are batsman Ambati Rayudu, wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik and fast bowler Khaleel Ahmed.

List of contracted players from October 2019 to September 2020

Grade A+ (INR 7 crore) – Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah.

Grade A (INR 5 crore) – Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohd. Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant.

Grade B (INR 3 crore) – Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal.

Grade C (INR 1 crore) – Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar.

Post Edited By: Dixit Bhargav
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About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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