According to a top BCCI official, Mahendra Singh Dhoni war informed about his name being omitted from the annual contracts. In an interaction with the PTI on Thursday, the official clarified the entire issue.
Not a surprise for Dhoni
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s omission might have given birth to a number of speculations about his cricket career, a reliable source from the board said to the PTI that MS Dhoni was clearly informed about it before finalizing the whole thing. He said, “Let me clarify that one of the top-most BCCI office-bearers spoke to MS 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 official was asked whether the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah, and CEO Rahul Johri spoke to Dhoni, the source denied to reveal anything. He rather opined, “Let’s not get into who spoke. The fact is that a player of his stature needs to be told that he is not being awarded a central contract for the time being and it was done in an appropriate manner,” he said.
A pro-rata plan for Dhoni?
The official further added that if Dhoni manages to get included in the squad for the upcoming World T20 Cup in Australia which is scheduled to be played in October 2020 he can be included on a pro-rata basis. “There will be an Asia Cup T20 (likely to be shifted from Pakistan) and if Dhoni plays a certain number of matches, he will be automatically included. It’s not like he has been dumped for good. It’s just that he doesn’t qualify because he has not played.”
The source was also asked about Dhoni’s retirement plans. He was asked if Dhoni would take a final call after this contract updates. The source clearly said that the man in question knows it the best.
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