Nahkre Nahin Chalenge (No place for drama),” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in Rajkot when he was asked about contracted senior national team players shying away from Ranji Trophy.
The board supremo did not mince words as chatter around young Test regulars missing the premier red-ball tournament of the country was doing rounds. While speaking to the press at the Niranjan Shah Stadium, Jay Shah made it clear that the powerful cricket body was no longer going to tolerate excuses.
Yes, BCCI terminating the central contracts of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer, both of whom played a key role in India’s World Cup campaign in 2023, was an unprecedented move. But did it come as a surprise? In MS Dhoni’s words, “Definitely Not”.
The writing was on the wall. In fact, Ishan Kishan missed the last round of Ranji Trophy for Jharkhand, two days after who don’t turn up for their state teams.
Head coach that the door was not closed on anyone and that playing domestic cricket is a mandatory step for getting back into contention for the senior national team places.
Ishan, who has a Rs 15.25 crore IPL contract with Mumbai Indians, was seen training with his newly-appointed IPL captain Hardik Pandya while being absent for Ranji Trophy duty. Ishan had not played competitive cricket since pulling out of a Test series in South Africa, citing personal reason, which was later reported to be mental fatigue.
On the other hand, Shreyas Iyer was not picked for a 3-match T20I series against Afghanistan after he was vice-captain in a home series against South Africa. Iyer played a Ranji Trophy game in January before he returned to play the first two Tests in the much-anticipated 5-match series against England. However, he was not picked for the remainder of the series as his poor run in whites continued.
Yes, Shreyas Iyer opted to skip IPL 2023 to undergo surgery for a recurring back injury concern and worked hard to be fit in time for the ODI World Cup. Iyer earned the reward for his efforts as the Mumbai batter scored 530 runs, including 2 hundreds.
Cut to February 2023, Shreyas Iyer cited an injury to withdraw from Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy quarter-final, which was played from February 23 to 27 in Mumbai. However, the medical team of the National Cricket Academy reportedly declared him fit, only adding to mystery surrounding his exclusion from the last three Tests against England.
Shreyas Iyer, who was going through his leanest patch in Test cricket, seems to have irked the team management by not returning to Ranji Trophy and grinding it out, again.
‘HATS OFF TO THE BCCI’
Even as against Tamil Nadu from March 2, BCCI cracking the whip is being seen as a step in the right direction to ensure that young cricketers prioritise domestic tournaments at a time when their IPL contracts are getting bigger and bigger.
Yes, Virat Kohli has played only one Ranji Trophy game since making his Test debut and it came in 2012. Rohit Sharma last played in 2015 and Jasprit Bumrah has not played the premier red-ball tournament since his Test debut in 2018. There have been calls in the past, urging the big names to also play Ranji Trophy, but the established stars have found ways to deliver at the highest level.
Speaking to India Today, former chairman of the national selection committee, MSK Prasad, said he doffs his hat to the BCCI top brass for deciding that it “is necessary”.
“One word that I can tell to BCCI administrators is ‘Hats off to them’. This is what is needed,” the former chief selector said.
“And this is the need of the hour. If you take domestic cricket lightly, then you have to face the repercussions. Let’s not forget, that whoever is playing international cricket and doing well there are products of domestic cricket. So don’t disregard domestic cricket just because you have good contracts here and there,” he added.
Responding to the mood of a majority of cricket fans who backed the two young players, Prasad said: “People on social media are worried about the outcome of it. But what happened? You need to take a step behind and look at the process that the board went through before taking such kind of a tough call. Nobody wants to take a tough call against a person who has got 500 runs in a World Cup. But what has really pushed the administrators to take such a tough call? Whatever little I know, they were asked to play domestic cricket. See what’s wrong with playing domestic cricket? If you can play the World Cup and play IPL, why not play domestic cricket?”
PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT TO HARDIK?
Hardik Pandya has retained his contract in the A category (AFP Photo) questioning whether the BCCI’s call to terminate the Kolkata Knight Riders captain’s contract was fair at a time when Hardik Pandya retained his A-grade contract.
It is important to note that Hardik has stressed that he was not ready to return to Test cricket and that he wouldn’t be willing to take up a youngster’s spot in the state team. Hardik, who has been injury-prone, has not played international cricket since picking up an ankle injury at the ODI World Cup last year. It has been obvious that the BCCI and the selection committee have been seeing Hardik as a white-ball specialist as the all-rounder has not played a Test match for India since September 2018.
‘RS 15 LAKH IS GOOD ENOUGH’
Why are young stars reluctant to play Ranji Trophy? Has the BCCI not done enough to make red-ball cricket a lucrative option for the younger generation? If reports are to be believed, the board is mulling increasing the match fee for Test cricket, which is currently at Rs 5 lakh per match. There are talks about bonuses for players who play more than a certain number of Test matches in a season.
Notably, only in 2016, the BCCI doubled the Test match fee to Rs 15 lakh and made it a point to hand Test regulars, who play only one format, to be placed in higher brackets in the annual retainership list.
“See, today, for each Test match, you are getting Rs 15 lakh. That is good enough. That is good enough. During our tenure only, this happened. So from Rs 5 lakh, we made it Rs 15 lakh so that people who are not playing IPL, don’t get dejected. And people who are playing a lot of Tests should be rewarded rightly. That’s the reason why the board also put them in higher cricketers. The board has always prioritised Test cricket. I will leave it to the administrators to take that call. But Rs 15 lakh is good enough, boss,” Prasad added.
The manner in which BCCI has taken care of its contracted players has been a subject of envy in world cricket. The richest cricket body, with a robust domestic structure, has produced an assembly line of young talents who are ready for international cricket.
“This policy will set the tone for the entire country and the future generations,” Prasad said, hitting the nail on the head.
