NEWS
Follow UsIn what comes as a huge development, the BCCI have not offered central contracts to Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan, who have both recently come under fire for their alleged refusal to play domestic cricket.
Last year, Iyer and Kishan held B & C grade contracts respectively, but in the BCCI player retainership list for 2023-24 season, neither individual has been offered a contract.
Kishan has not played for India since November but the omission of Iyer comes as a major shock, considering the right-handed batter represented India as recently as 25 days ago.
“Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations,” the BCCI said in its official release.
Why the pair were not offered contracts remains unclear, but both have recently been in the news for the wrong reasons.
While the BCCI are reportedly said to be unhappy with Kishan for his refusal to play domestic cricket — Kishan hasn’t played any professional cricket since December despite being fully fit — Iyer recently was accused of allegedly skipping the Ranji Trophy quarter-final due to injury despite being declared fit by the National Cricket Academy (NCA).
Iyer has been included in the squad for Mumbai’s semi-final against Tamil Nadu, but the BCCI have not offered the experienced 29-year-old a contract anyway, despite him being an integral part of both the ODI and Test side.
Among those not offered a contract is also veteran Cheteshwar Pujara, who held a B grade contract for the 2022/23 season. Yuzvendra Chahal, who held a C grade contract, has also been omitted from the list, as has Shikhar Dhawan and Umesh Yadav.
Rishabh Pant, who held an ‘A’ contract last year, has been downgraded to a ‘B’ contract, presumably due to injury. Shubman Gill, meanwhile, has been offered an ‘A’ contract.
Among newbies who have been offered a contract are Yashasvi Jaiswal (B), Tilak Varma (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Jitesh Sharma (C), Mukesh Kumar (C) and Rajat Patidar (C)
Grade A+ (4 Athletes)
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A (6 Athletes)
R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.
Grade B (5 Athletes)
Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Grade C (15 Athletes)
Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Rajat Patidar.
Also according to the BCCI:
> Athletes who meet the criteria of playing a minimum of 3 Tests or 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period will automatically be included in Grade C on a pro-rata basis. For instance, Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan, having played 2 Test matches so far, will be inducted into Grade C if they participate in the Dharamsala Test Match, i.e., the 5th Test of the ongoing series against England.
> The Selection Committee has recommended Fast Bowling contracts for the following athletes – Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa.
> Athletes must give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.
