MS Dhoni's absence from BCCI's contracts list triggers retirement murmurs

Former India captain MS Dhoni has been left out of the BCCI's central contracts list of players from October 2019 to September 2020. This has fuelled speculations that Dhoni could soon announce retirement from all forms of international cricket.

"The BCCI announces the Annual Player Contracts for Team India (Senior Men) for the period from October 2019 to September 2020. Saini, Mayank, Shreyas, Washington and Deepak Chahar get annual player contracts," a tweet from the cricketing body says.

Notably, Dhoni retired from Test cricket in December 2014. He gave up captaincy of India's T20 team in January 2017. However, he been an integral member of the shorter formats of the game.

Dhoni was part of Grade A in the BCCI's central contracts list in 2019.

He has been absent from all forms of cricket since India's defeat in the 2019 ICC World Cup semi-final to New Zealand.

In his 14 years of international cricketing career, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, also known as Mahi, has won all major trophies for India, including the World Cup 2011, Champions Trophy, T20 World Cup.

As soon as the news about MS Dhoni being left out of the contracts list broke on social media, Dhoni fans sought explanation from BCCI. Here are some tweets.

Finest is being ignored for the poorest!!#MSDhoni#ThankYouDhoni

— Akash Rajput (@illegallyactive) January 16, 2020

Dear @BCCI, @SGanguly99@JayShah where is @msdhoni?

Fans of #TeamIndia demand an explanation.....#MSDhoni#ShameOnBCCIhttps://t.co/JcH9YU6lbK

— Sudip Mukherjee (@sudipraj27) January 16, 2020

@msdhoni Indian cricket's most selfless servant finally got his due thanks to @BCCI. Finally you have done justice to the legend of #MSDhoni . Shameful #BCCI

— Biswarup (@biswa_bhatta) January 16, 2020

ऐसा पहली बार हुआ है ,पिछले 14 सालों में 😌

BCCI के सालाना कांट्रेक्ट ग्रेड लिस्ट से #MSDhoni बाहर 😒😢#thankyoumahi 🙌🇮🇳🔥 pic.twitter.com/KxLJU6DB2V

— 🇮🇳जोधपुरी छोरा ⛳ (@gg_osiyan) January 16, 2020

It is clear that #thaladhoni is not going to play till this year end..so I guess they removed him from the contract..
But I am @BCCI will give him a proper send off by giving him chance to play at ranchi or Chennai odi..#BCCI#MSDhoni#TeamIndia#INDvsAUS

— My conscience/என் மனசாட்சி (@machanae1) January 16, 2020