BCCI cracks the whip: Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan lose central contracts for ignoring domestic cricket
BCCI) on Wednesday cracked the whip on cricketers who refused to comply with its directives requiring all centrally-contracted and A -team players, who are fit to play, to make themselves available for participation in the domestic cricket tournaments.
The BCCI announced a list of 30 senior men’s cricketers, up from last year’s 26, for the annual central contracts, with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja remaining in the topmost Grade A+ category. However, two names were conspicuous by their absence – Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan.
Iyer, who had a Grade B contract, was part of the Test side for the first two matches against England before being dropped for lack of runs. He had some issues with his back and went to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) for treatment. However, despite being declared fit by the NCA, he informed the Mumbai Cricket Association that wouldn’t be available for the Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Baroda saying that he was suffering from back spasms. Since then, though, he has joined the Mumbai squad for the semi-final against Tamil Nadu starting from March 2.
Kishan’s case is even more bizarre. In December, he requested a break from cricket and returned home mid-tour from South Africa. However, since then, Kishan, who had a Grade C contract, hasn’t played any competitive cricket, including the Ranji Trophy. He instead chose to train with Hardik Pandya in Baroda and returned to action on Tuesday at the DY Patil T20 tournament.
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