The fans and cricket fraternity were taken away by surprise after MS Dhoni was dropped from the annual contract released by BCCI. However, the announcement of his exclusion from the BCCI’s annual contract wouldn’t have surprised MS Dhoni himself.
According to a report in PTI, MS Dhoni was duly reported before his name was dropped from the contract list by the office-bearers of BCCI. A BCCI official was quoted by PTI saying:
“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,”
Well, MS Dhoni’s absence in the list clearly states that he would not be participating in any international cricket for a few more months. A few days ago in an interview, the head coach of the Indian cricket team, Ravi Shastri revealed that MS Dhoni’s selection in the World Cup 2020 squad depends upon his performance in the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League.
MS played his last international match against New Zealand in the semi-final of the World Cup. It has been months since MS Dhoni played any competitive game and thus his contract was not renewed by the BCCI.
Meanwhile, Dhoni might return back to the first-class cricket, where he will return after more than five years. Dhoni has joined the Jharkhand’s squad ahead of their next Ranji Trophy fixture against Uttarakhand. Though the news of him playing isn’t confirmed yet but he has started training for it.
Apart from MS Dhoni, BCCI has also dropped Dinesh Karthik, Khaleel Ahmed and recently retired, Ambati Rayudu from the contract list.