BCCI drops Dhoni in central contract list for players
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Dhoni was in the A category, players in this bracket earn Rs 5 crore, until last year.
India's Board Control of Cricket in India(BCCI) today released the list of players in the annual player retainership of the year for the senior team. The list had renewed contracts for the players.
The BCCI announces the Annual Player Contracts for Team India (Senior Men) for the period from October 2019 to September 2020.
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 16, 2020
Saini, Mayank, Shreyas, Washington and Deepak Chahar get annual player contracts.
More details here - https://t.co/84iIn1vs9B #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/S6ZPq7FBt1
India's World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni,38, was dropped from the list. According to ANI sources, Dhoni was given a heads up before this decision.
Sources: MS Dhoni was informed that he won't be given BCCI's central contact, before the decision was announced today. A player needs to play a minimum of three T20 matches in a particular season to be eligible for BCCI central contract. pic.twitter.com/FHYfvA1PEc
— ANI (@ANI) January 16, 2020
"Captain cool" has not played for India since appearing for Team India in the World Cup semi-finals against New Zealand in England last summer.
A few days ago coach Ravi Shastri had spilt the beans regarding Dhoni's future, saying that at his age he should focus on T20Is. He has retired from Test cricket.
Dhoni was in "A category" - players in this bracket earn Rs 5 crore. MS Dhoni has played 90 Tests, 350 ODIs, and 98 T20I.
Skipper Virat Kohli, Indian vice-captain Rohit Sharma, and top spearhead pacer Jasprit Bumrah have been retained in the highest A+ bracket of Rs 7 crore. Among others, batsman K L Rahul has been promoted from B grade to A.
BCCI's present List:
Grade A+ (7 crores): Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah.
Grade A (5 crores): Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, K L Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant.
Grade B (3 crores): Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal.
Grade C (1 crore): Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar.