Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan’s omission headlined the BCCI’s central contracts list announced for the 2023-24 season on Wednesday (February 28). Both batters seemed to have paid the price for ignoring the board’s directives to participate in the Ranji Trophy.
Iyer and Kishan’s contract termination, however, prompted the fans and experts to question BCCI’s decision to place Hardik Pandya in the Grade A category even though the all-rounder neither plays red-ball cricket nor he takes part in white-ball domestic tournaments when not on national duty.
Amid the outrage, a report published in The Indian Express claimed that the selectors and the BCCI only handed Hardik a contract after he gave an undertaking that he would feature for Baroda in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s and Vijay Hazare Trophy if there are no limited-overs commitments with the Indian team.
“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,” the top BCCI official told The Indian Express.
As per the Future Tours Programme, India are due to play only three T20Is at home against Bangladesh. In the October-December period, the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s and Vijay Hazare Trophy would take place when the Indian team won’t have any white-ball commitments. Unless Pandya is down with any fitness issues, he has been asked to feature in both these tournaments.
The report further claimed that the BCCI will instruct contracted players to report to their respective state units when they are not part of the national team set-up.
In recent times, there have been cases of players attending short camps with their respective IPL franchises in the middle of the domestic season. Recently, Shreyas Iyer was present at the KKR training camp after missing Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy match.
(The Indian Express inputs)
