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Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan excluded from BCCI annual central contracts
Kishan had a Grade C contract last season, while Iyer was on the Grade B list.
Shreyas Iyer (R) and Ishan Kishan (L) have been excluded from the BCCI annual contracts / Shreyas Iyer/Ishan Kishan (X)
Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were missing from the list of 30 players that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) centrally contracted for 2023-2024.
This comes after the two players essentially prevented themselves from playing for the national team, putting them out of consideration for BCCI's annual list of retainers.
During the South Africa tour, Kishan took a personal leave of absence from cricket and didn't play again until earlier this week in the DY Patil T20 competition. Iyer also didn't play for Mumbai or India in the week that followed, despite the NCA having declared him fit prior to the selection for the second half of the current Test series, as per ESPN.
With Iyer claiming poor health despite NCA’s declaration of his good health and Kishan using his away time by training with Hardik Pandya as per reports, selectors appeared to be dissatisfied with their conduct. Previously, Iyer was part of the Grade B list last season while Kishan had a Grade C contract.
"Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations," the BCCI noted in a statement. "The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team,” the board stated.
Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, and KL Rahul have been promoted to the highest-paying contracts Grade A, while Rishabh Pant, who missed much of the season recuperating from a car accident, is now in Grade B.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja have been retained in the A+ category, and Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, and Mohammed Shami have been kept in the Grade A group.
After spending the previous season in Grade A, Axar Patel is now in Grade B. Kuldeep Yadav has been promoted from Grade C to Grade B, while Yashasvi Jaiswal, a player who recently signed a contract, is now in Grade B as well. The only player from the previous campaign to be kept in the same group is Suryakumar Yadav (Group B). Despite playing in Grade B the previous season, Cheteshwar Pujara was unable to secure a contract this time around.
From the previous season's eleven players, as many as 15 have been named in the Grade C category. Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, and Rajat Patidar are among the ten new members. While Umesh Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan, Deepak Hooda, and Yuzvendra Chahal have been left out, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, and KS Bharat have been kept in Grade C.
The 2023–24 season's annual contracts will be in effect from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024. On a pro-rata basis, players who appear in at least three Tests, eight ODIs, or ten Twenty20 Internationals during this time frame will automatically be placed in the Grade C category. Thus, Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan—who have each played two Test matches against England—will be added to the Grade C list if they do well in the Dharamsala Test.
The selection committee has also suggested the creation of a new category called "fast bowling contracts," which includes Vidwath Kaverappa, Umran Malik, Akash Deep, Yash Dayal, and Vijaykumar Vyshak.
Notably, the centrally contracted players received a letter from BCCI secretary Jay Shah two weeks ago requesting that they not put the IPL ahead of their domestic cricket commitments and national duty. They had been alerted to "severe implications" in the letter.
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