Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s omission from the central contracts list was imminent and he was duly informed before the national selection committee finalised the names, a top BCCI official said. “Let me clarify that one of the top-most BCCI office bearers spoke to MS Dhoni and told him about how they are going about it in the central contracts. He was clearly told that since he hasn’t played any game in the said period, he cannot be included for the time being,” the official said.

Asked who among BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah and CEO Rahul Johri spoke to Dhoni, the official refused to divulge the name. “Let’s not get into who spoke. The fact is that a player of his stature needs to be told that he is not being awarded a central contract for the time being and it was done in an appropriate manner,” he said.

However, the official said that if Dhoni makes it to the World T20 team in Australia or even before that, he can be included on a pro-rata basis. “There will be an Asia Cup T20 and if Dhoni plays a certain number of matches, he will be automatically included. It’s not like he has been dumped for good. It’s just that he doesn’t qualify because he has not played,” the official said.

The existing rule for awarding central contracts is that a player needs to compete in a minimum of three Tests or eight ODIs to qualify. He can also get in by playing a stipulated number of T20 games.