BCCI has announced central contracts for Indian cricket players for this year. They have given Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah – A+ grade. These are seen as most important players who would be part of Indian team playing all formats.
R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya have been awarded Grade A. Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal got Grade B. Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Rajat Patidar have been given Grade C.
Additionally, those players who get selected and play 3 Tests or 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is within October 1st, 2023 to September 30th, 2024, will be awarded Grade C pay contract on pro-rata basis. Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have been part of Indian National Team during this period in most matches and them not being awarded any contract has made headlines and opened many discussions.
While fans objected to BCCI including Rishabh Pant, who has been in recovery from a freak accident induced injuries for more than a year into contracts and upgrading Hardik Pandya to Grade A, they have been appreciating for giving pace bowlers contracts. They argued that Pant and Pandya got undue advantage while Kishan and Iyer have been treated harshly.
Rohit Sharma made a statement that those who don’t showcase interest to be playing at the highest level, that is, Tests, they would face consequences. Jay Shah wrote an open letter asking players to not give more importance to IPL over domestic cricket. Now, they are plans to introduce pay of upto Rs.75 Lakhs for domestic players in Ranjis and Rs.15 crores per year for players who play Tests.
This pay structure is introduced to give more incentives to players who play Test cricket along with other formats as well. And also to give domestic cricket more edge over IPL, as many think playing in IPL could open their prospects to play for India or give them financial freedom. Ishan Kishan has made himself unavailable for SA and England Tests while Iyer did not play for Mumbai in Ranji Quarter finals when NCA cleared him off any injuries.
This is a strong statement from BCCI to even those players with contracts to not ignore domestic cricket and Test cricket without proper reasons. Let’s see if this move improves Indian players stance to be part of domestic tournaments even more or not
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