Reason Behind MS Dhoni's Demotion in BCCI's Central Contract

It was a no surprise to see MS Dhoni getting demoted in BCCI’s latest contract list.

Since he does not play Test cricket now, he wasn’t kept in the A+ or premium category.

A total of five players viz Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were kept in the newly formed A+plus category.

All the players play all three formats presently.

However, the place of Rohit and Dhawan is not fixed in playing XI, and they often dropped from the side.

Still, they both got the premium contract.

Being in the squad in all three formats was the criteria while selecting the A+plus grade and Dhoni was not qualified for the top grade.

Last year though, he was kept in grade A despite retiring from Test cricket two years ago.

Ramachandra Guha objected- former members of COA – and action was taken on it.

Dhoni will now earn Rs 5 crore from BCCI.

Despite being demoted in rankings, his income has increased due to revised scale.

BCCI’s announced a new pay scale for players, and now, players in top category will now earn Rs 7 Crore, instead of Rs 2 Crore.

Grade A players will earn a salary of Rs 5 Crore while players in grade B and C will get Rs 3 and Rs 1 Crore, respectively.

The A+ category is a premium category which specially made for the players who play all the formats.

The name of Bumrah in top Grade is though surprising. The South Africa series was the first Test series that he played.

He played all the three games but has a long way to go to become a permanent member in the longest format.

His name in the premium list also shows he will have more workload in the coming tours and will be a crucial part of the team on overseas tours.

Here is the news feed: