New Delhi: Decided to drop Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer. The roster of centrally contracted players has only Ajit Agarkar as chairman of the Election Committee, Jay Shah BCCI Secretary. “No one is indispensable.” This was revealed in the disclosure.
Kishan and Ayer were both overlooked after missing domestic engagements sanctioned by the BCCI. Ranji trophy matches including semi-finals and finals but Kishan took a long vacation after ODI World Cup until IPL.
However, Iyer still suffered when it was exposed that he went to the Kolkata Knight Riders training camp in Mumbai where his classmates were competing in the Ranji Trophy.
“You can go and check the charter. I am just convener (of the selection meeting),” he told reporters at BCCI headquarters on Thursday.
“The decision lies with Ajit Agarkar and even if these two players (Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer) are not playing domestic (cricket) matches, strike them off (from central contract list)’s decision is his own prerogative.”
“My role is execution only we have new players like Sanju (Samson). No one is indispensable,” he added.
Shah also reiterated that Indian cricketers need to give priority to playing domestic cricket.
Before India-England third Test match this year in February, Shah announced days before being fired under his contract he would stand fully behind chief selectors’ verdicts against any player who does not follow Indian captain’s orders or team management. Do anything necessary for management to play games against other countries
He claims to have spoken with players after their expulsion.
“Yes I spoke to them,” he said while responding to media stories concerning this issue on Friday.
“Even Hardik (Pandya) said ‘if BCCI allows me for white-ball formats then my name can be put down for Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.’ Either way, all the players are going to play and even if they don’t want to,” Shah added.
Shah said the high scores in this year’s IPL have been a result of good performance and maintaining that form as a player.
“Whoever plays well in IPL…like Ishan Kishan has said I find it difficult to play Indian team but easy playing for mumbai indians. There he can play easily.”
“Exist indian team, you have to prove yourself, performing back to back. A proper player will be that who can do this very well,” he added.
Kishan bares his heart during an interview with Shah after Mumbai Indians played Gujarat Titans.
“I didn’t give him any advice no. It was just friendly chat and he should do well; I always talk like that with every player,” he said.
While some media reports mention increase in match fees for domestic players, there are no such plans according to Shah.
“In any case, we have increased wages and incentivized Test cricket. The increment was 100 per cent in 2022,” Shah added.
