Intimated, then excluded!

MS 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 told PTI.

If the former skipper makes it to the T20 squad sometime this year, he might be re-inducted on a pro-rata basis even though chances of that are remote.

The 38-year-old double World Cup-winning former India captain's omission from the list was not unexpected as he has not played any international cricket for over six months now. "Let me clarify that one of the top-most BCCI office-bearers spoke to MS and told him about how they are going about in the central contracts. He was clearly told that since he hasn't played any game in the said period (September 2019 till date), he cannot be included for the time being," the official told PTI. Asked who among BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, secretary Jay Shah and CEO Rahul Johri spoke to Dhoni, the official refused to divulge. "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 (October 2020, after current contracts' duration ends) or even before that, he can be included on a pro-rata basis.

"There will be an Asia Cup T20 (likely to be shifted from Pakistan) 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.