The BCCI has cracked the whip. The message is loud and clear: You can’t mess around with the national team and you can’t disrespect Ranji Trophy. The board has dropped Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan from the list of centrally contracted players, as it announced annual retainership for the 2023-24 season (October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024) on Wednesday.
“Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations,” said the BCCI media release.
🚨BCCI announces annual player retainership 2023-24 – Team India (Senior Men) #TeamIndia
Grade A+
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A
R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.
Grade B
Surya Kumar… pic.twitter.com/lzgiNGgs6l
— RevSportz (@RevSportz) February 28, 2024
Iyer and Kishan seemingly ignored BCCI secretary Jay Shah’s directive to play red-ball domestic cricket and skipped Ranji Trophy games. After being dropped for the last three Tests against England, Iyer didn’t turn up for Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Baroda, citing back injury. The report from the National Cricket Academy, however, had declared the middle-order batsman as fit. Iyer has now made himself available for the semi-final against Tamil Nadu.
Kishan had gone AWOL after abruptly returning from South Africa in December-January for reasons not related to cricket. The Jharkhand wicketkeeper-batsman didn’t feature in any of the Ranji matches. He has now returned to competitive cricket, at the DY Patil T20 Cup.
Iyer and Kishan were in Grade B and Grade C, respectively, in last season’s contracts. And their ouster has come in the wake of Shah’s firm directive that was dittoed by Rohit Sharma.
“I have already informed everyone over the phone and will write a letter tomorrow. If the chairman of the selection committee, your captain and your coach ask you to play red-ball domestic cricket, you have to play. We will not take any excuse from the young players who are fit, who can take the rigours of multi-day cricket,” the BCCI secretary said a few days ago.
“I won’t single out anyone. This is a message to everybody. Everybody has to play. Else, the chairman of selectors has the freehand to take a call,” Shah said.
Then, at the post-match press conference, after winning the Ranchi Test, Rohit had said: “See, Test cricket is the toughest format. And if you want to excel in this format, have success, then you need to have the hunger. Those who have the hunger, we will give them opportunities. Those who don’t have the hunger; it gets known. Those who have it in them to perform in tough conditions will be given the preference.”
At the moment, both Iyer and Kishan seem to have an uncertain national team future.
Coming back to this season’s contracts, veterans Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan and Umesh Yadav have been dropped from the list. A total of 30 players have been picked and youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal (in B category), Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Jitesh Sharma, Rajat Patidar and Mukesh Kumar have made the cut.
“Additionally, 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 in Grade C if they participate in the Dharamsala Test, the 5th Test of the ongoing series against England,” said the BCCI release.
The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee has also recommended fast-bowling contracts for
Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa.
Only four players are in the top (A+) category — Rohit, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
Retainership fee for Grades A+, A, B and C are Rs 7 crore, Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore, respectively.