India's first World Cup-winning skipper Kapil Dev expressed support for the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) decision to withhold central contracts from Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer, who declined to participate in the Ranji Trophy.
"I am so happy that the cricket board has taken a step forward for first-class cricket. The boys must play that, it's good for the country. Whatever is good for the country, I feel happy about that. Yes, few players will suffer...kuch ko takleef hogi...hone do, lekin desh se badhkar koi nahi hai. Well don," Kapil Dev said.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly has supported the BCCI's decision to terminate the contracts of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan for not participating in Ranji Trophy cricket despite being fit and eligible for selection. Ganguly, who served as the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for four years from 2019 to 2022, also concurred with the board's stance that cricketers in the country should engage in domestic cricket when not on national duty.
“I think the BCCI wants them to play first-class cricket. I am surprised why Shreyas Iyer has not played Ranji Trophy. It is a premier tournament, and you are supposed to play. So, it is a decision by the BCCI, and what they have thought right, they have done. Every contracted cricketer must play first-class cricket because that is the basic premise of cricket in this country,” Ganguly expressed to RevzSportz.
The statements came after both Kishan and Iyer lost their central contracts due to their refusal to play for Jharkhand and Mumbai in the ongoing Ranji Trophy. Kishan opted out of Jharkhand's last couple of games in the tournament and, instead, went to Baroda to train for the upcoming IPL 2024 with his Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya and his elder brother Krunal.
On the other hand, Iyer cited a back injury as the reason for pulling out of Mumbai's Ranji campaign, even though the National Cricket Academy declared him fit to play. Similar to Kishan, Iyer chose to attend Kolkata Knight Riders' pre-season camp, a decision that did not sit well with the BCCI selectors. The central contracts were terminated just a day after these decisions were made by the players.
“Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations,” a statement from BCCI read over the duo's absence from the central contracts.
LIST OF ANNUAL CONTRACTS
| Grade | Athletes |
|---|
| A+ | Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja |
| A | R Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya |
| B | Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Akshar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal |
| C | 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, Rajat Patidar |
