Dhoni was informed before BCCI dropped him from central contract list

Wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni was informed by the BCCI before being dropped from the list of central contract players, said a source on Thursday.

"Dhoni was informed and spoken to about the central contact before the BCCI announced that he will not be given one. He was told -- once you play at least three T20Is -- BCCI could think of pro-rata basis in central contracts," a BCCI source told ANI.

Dhoni was on Thursday dropped from the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) list of central contract players, while Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah have been listed in the A+ category.

"He hasn't played a single game in the last six months. You need to play a minimum of three T20I matches in the particular season to be eligible for a central contract," added the source.

The 38-year-old Dhoni is currently enjoying some time away from the game. He last played the competitive cricket during the World Cup.

Dhoni had to face criticism for his slow batting approach during India's matches in the tournament. Especially in the games against England and New Zealand (semi-final), he had to bear the brunt of netizens, who deemed him as the reason for the Men in Blue's loss.

BCCI released the list of centrally contracted players for the period from October 2019 to September 2020. With Dhoni not featuring in the list, his future ahead will come under severe speculation.

Annually, A+ category players will receive Rs 7 crore, while A category players get Rs 5 crore. B and C category players will get Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively.

Here is the list of players under each category:

A+ category: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah.

A category: Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Chesteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant.

B category: Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal.

C category: Kedar Jadhav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, and Washington Sundar.

India is currently playing Australia in a three-match ODI series. The Men in Blue lost the first ODI, and the next match will be played on January 17 at Rajkot.