BCCI Central Contract: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)'s decision not to renew the annual contracts of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer has gained a lot of criticism. Moreover, questions were also raised when BCCI granted A grade contract to all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who has been out of the Indian team since ICC World Cup 2023.
Now, a report by Indian Express has stated that Pandya committed to play for Baroda in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s and Vijay Hazare Trophy when he is not involved with the national team. Citing a senior BCCI official, the IE also reported that Pandya has affirmed his intention to maintain his partnership with Baroda in domestic tournaments whenever he is not on national team duty.
“We have had discussions with Pandya, who has been told to play domestic white-ball tournaments when he is available. At this stage, according to the assessment of the BCCI’s medical team, he is not in a position to bowl in red-ball tournaments. So playing Ranji Trophy is out of the equation for Pandya. But he has to play other white-ball tournaments if there are no India commitments. If not, he will miss out on a contract,” a BCCI official said as quoted by Indian Express.
Batter Iyer who represents Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy was not part of the quarterfinal which was held on 23 February due to "back spasms" but the National Cricket Academy (NCA) said that he has no 'fresh injuries', as reported by Indian Express. On the other hand, Wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan also skipped Ranji Trophy matches recently. Though it was expected that Kishan would play domestic cricket during his time away from the national team, the wicketkeeper-batter was absent from his state team Jharkhand's Ranji Trophy matches. India's head coach Rahul Dravid too mentioned that he needed to play some form of cricket to regain his place in the Indian squad. But he did make a return to competitive cricket on Tuesday at the DY Patil T20 Cup. Last year, Kishan was in the Indian squad for the South Africa Test series but had pulled out due to "personal reasons".
Veteran India wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha said that nothing can be done 'forcefully' if a cricketer does not want to play domestic cricket and added that it is the base and every player should value it enough to prosper. Speaking on Iyer-Kishan out, he said, “That is BCCI's decision and personal decision of concerned players. Forcefully, you can't do anything,” as quoted by PTI. He further added, “Whenever I am fit I play, even I played club matches, office matches as well. I always treat a match as a match. All matches are equal for me. If every player thinks on those lines, they will only prosper in their career and it will be better for Indian cricket as well. I feel the importance of domestic cricket is always there because if I talk about Sarfaraz Khan, he had scored plenty of runs in the last 4-5 years. Definitely, he has delivered."
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri called upon Iyer and Kishan to dig deep within themselves and come up stronger, saying "comebacks define the spirit" in the game of cricket. Taking to X, he wrote, “"In the game of cricket, comebacks define the spirit. Chin-up, @ShreyasIyer15 and @ishankishan51! Dig deep, face challenges, and come back even stronger. Your past achievements speak volumes, and I have no doubt you'll conquer once again."
(With inputs from PTI)
