BCCI shocking decision to not retain Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan in their Central contract list is making a lot of buzz
New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s decision to not retain star players like Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan has made a lot of noise everywhere. There were a lot of rumours around this for the past couple of days and they were proven right when BCCI released its annual Annual Contracts for the senior men’s team for the season running from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024.
The BCCI said in a statement that Shreyas and Ishan, who were in Grades B and C respectively in the last central contracts list, were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations. The Board also stated that all players need to give precedence to participating in domestic cricket while they are not representing the national team.
India.com in an exclusive conversation asked Varun Aaron about BCCI’s decision to not consider Iyer and Kishan in the Central contract list. The veteran pacer suggested not to unnecessarily speculate on the matter as the board must have their own reason for not extending the players’ contract just like Iyer and Kishan must have some good reason to avoid domestic cricket.
“I’ve been in the system and it is something very internal. If Shreyas and Ishan didn’t play domestic cricket, I’m sure they would have had their reasons and the reason why BCCI has not renewed their contract, I’m sure BCCI has their reasons as well. So this is something which is very internal. It’s between the BCCI and the two players. So all we can do from the outside is just speculate and I don’t think it’s good to speculate on these kinds of things,” Varun Aaron told India.com.
Ishan Kishan has been out of action since his withdrawal from the Indian Test squad for the South Africa series last year due to personal reasons. He was reported to be training in Baroda but missed the entire Ranji Trophy season for Jharkhand. Recently, the wicket-keeper batter returned to cricketing action in the ongoing DY Patil T20 tournament being held in Navi Mumbai.
On the contrary, Iyer was not included in India’s Test squad for the final three Tests against England. He also missed Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Baroda due to back issues. However, he has been named in the squad for the semi-final against Tamil Nadu at the BKC Ground, on March 2.
Apart from Shreyas and Ishan, BCCI has also not retained Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Deepak Hooda, and Yuzvendra Chahal in the central contracts list. Meanwhile, the Grade A+ list is unchanged and has four players in captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, and Jasprit Bumrah just like last year.