The BCCI left MS Dhoni out of their list of annually contracted players and that took many by surprise.?
But the reality is that this does not affect his career in any way, for the moment at least. His last Test was in December 2014, last T20I in February 2019 the last ODI was in July 2019.
Since he has not played any cricket for India in the last 6 months, he was not considered for a central contract.
Even though the wicketkeeper-batsman hasn¡¯t announced his retirement from the white-ball format yet, the BCCI ¡ª well aware of Dhoni¡¯s plans in the near future ¡ª decided to keep him out of the contracts.?
¡°But that doesn¡¯t mean he won¡¯t be considered for any selection in the future,¡± said sources.
There is confirmation that Dhoni is not calling it quits anytime before the end of the IPL. In fact if Captain Cool Dhoni performs well for CSK, he will be in contention for a place in the World T20 squad.?
¡°Then it is up to the selectors and it is up to individual performances. What if he single-handedly takes CSK to victory in IPL? Won¡¯t that matter? People should stop jumping the gun. His absence from the annual retainership doesn¡¯t mean a thing,¡± sources said.
TOI understands that Dhoni will ¡®certainly make himself available for selection¡¯ when the time arrives to pick the squad for World T20, except that nobody wants to speak about it right now.
Dhoni is not the only player who hasn¡¯t announced his retirement yet despite not playing for India. ¡°Even Harbhajan Singh hasn¡¯t played since 2015-16. He hasn¡¯t announced his retirement either. Nobody wants to ask him why he hasn¡¯t done it. Maybe Dhoni makes a bigger headline and people love headlines,¡± said an official.
¡°Retirement, be it Dhoni or Harbhajan or any other cricketer, is a very personal decision. Selecting or dropping a player is the selection committee¡¯s decision. Dhoni will not play in the ODIs again. So how can he be part of the central contracts?
¡°Shubman Gill and Prithvi Shaw haven¡¯t been given contracts either. Does that mean they are not in the scheme of things? Contracts are decided on technical grounds. Shaw hasn¡¯t played for India since he got injured in Australia. Gill has just played two ODIs. There¡¯s a method to distribution of contracts,¡± sources added.
Technically, Dhoni cannot announce his retirement from T20s simply because he will have to play the IPL. ¡°How weird will it sound when a player says, ¡®I¡¯m retiring from the game but I¡¯ll continue playing in the IPL?¡¯ An Indian cricketer needs to compulsorily retire only if he wants to play any cricket overseas or intends to associate himself with any cricketrelated activity off the field. Dhoni doesn¡¯t intend to do either. Yuvraj wanted to play in Canada, that¡¯s why he retired,¡± sources said.