The dropping of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan by the BCCI from its central contract is being seen as the national governing body sending out a clear message on the importance of domestic cricket. Both the cricketers for various reasons missed their respective state’s Ranji Trophy matches and later found themselves out of the contract list. Former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly, who was also a former BCCI president, had a message for current secretary Jay Shah and president Roger Binny on the subject.
Sourav Ganguly was asked by Times of India, “Do you think the younger crop of players needed to be guided better?”
“For someone like Ishan Kishan, BCCI secretary Jay Shah, president Roger Binny and the selectors need to speak to him. All this while he has played Ranji and then played white-ball cricket. Has it made him a poorer player? It hasn’t,” Ganguly replied.
“All the players picked in Delhi Capitals have played Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy and Ranji Trophy. Even Ishant Sharma has played Ranji. Khaleel Ahmed has played the full season after a long time. We worked with him in the off season and got him fit to play Ranji. There are only one or two exceptions who need to be spoken to.”
He was also asked that with the dropping of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from central contracts, whether the ficus has shifted to the relevance of first-class cricket.
“I think this is the first time that someone has not played or ignored red-ball domestic cricket. Otherwise, all of them have played Ranji Trophy when they were free. I am sure the BCCI will take proper action,” Ganguly replied.
Jay Shah has earlier mentioned Ishan Kishan during an interaction but quickly added that the announcement was not targeted towards him and this rule will apply for all cricketers who are not part of the national team.
“All contracted players have been told on phone and I’ll be writing to them too. If chairman of selectors, coach & captain want you to play red-ball cricket then you gotta play. ‘Nakhre Nahi Chalenge’ (no tantrums). And as far as Ishan Kishan is concerned, he is young, I am not saying this specifically about him as it will be applicable for all the players uniformly,” Jay Shah told reporters.
“Everyone will have to play, otherwise, the chairman of the selection committee has given me his suggestions and I am going to give him a free hand to let him take his own calls freely,” he added.
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