MUMBAI: In the clearest indication yet that the retirement of the second cog of the Big 3 of Indian sport – Mahendra Singh Dhoni – is nigh, the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday announced the Annual Player Contracts for Team India (Senior Men) for the period from October 2019 to September 2020. Missing from BCCI’s contract list the former India captain.
For the record, Dhoni was in Category A last season. He last turned out in national colours during the 2019 ODI World Cup where India were knocked out following a loss to New Zealand in the semi-finals.
The payout for all the four categories remains the same, with the trio of captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah retaining their A+ (Rs 70 million) category status.
While Dhoni has been excluded, it is the first instance for the likes of Navdeep Saini, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer, Washinton Sundar and Deepak Chahar to be included in the list.
BCCI contract standings for the upcoming season:
Category A+ (Rs 70m): Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
Category A (Rs 50m): Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant
Category B (Rs 30m): Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal.
Category C (Rs 10m): Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar
