Former Pakistani cricketer, Ramiz Raja had expressed objection with Dhoni getting a Grade A contract from the Board of Control for Cricket in India. He feels that it is wrong for him to get the contract as he is no longer playing Test Cricket. He has the same opinion for former Pakistani skipper, Shahid Afridi as he also comes in the category of players getting Grade A contract despite retiring from one format of the game.
Giving Board the advice to respect Test Cricket, he said, “You have to acknowledge and respect the status of Test match cricket and it has to come from the cricket boards, in Asia specifically. For example, MS Dhoni retired from Test cricket yet got the A-grade contract from the BCCI, Shahid Afridi retired from Test cricket yet got the A-grade contract from PCB.”
According to Ramiz Raja, Asian boards need to do something about Test cricket losing its interest to the shorter format of the game.”It is under a lot of stress in Asia but if we have a properly planned Test match championship, that’s the way out of this, otherwise, we will be struggling to put aside as much money as is available for the T20 leagues,” he said.
Ramachandra Guha, former CoA member also resigned for. “Unfortunately, the superstar syndrome has distorted the system of Indian team contracts. As you will recall, I had pointed out that awarding MS Dhoni an ‘A’ contract when he had explicitly ruled himself out from all Test matches was indefensible on cricketing grounds, and sends absolutely the wrong message,” he wrote in his letter.