New Delhi, March 29 A meeting in Guwahati featuring Ajit Agarkar, the chairman of the senior men’s selection committee, and Devajit Saikia, the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has been postponed. The meeting had originally been scheduled for Saturday.’
There was also a possibility of head coach Gautam Gambhir being a part of the meeting, after being on an overseas family vacation.
“Agarkar was scheduled to land in Guwahati on Saturday and have a meeting with Saikia, as per the original schedule. But the information of the meeting’s postponement came out on Friday night itself.
“As of now, there’s no real clarity on when that meeting could happen now – either after second IPL game in Guwahati or in the first week of April. But whatever conversation happens in that meeting in future, all relevant details are believed to be coming out in public domain soon after,” said sources aware of the development to IANS.
Earlier this week, the BCCI announced the annual retainers for the India senior women’s team for the 2024/25 cycle. IANS understands that the meeting in Guwahati on Saturday was to be around two major topics: annual retainers of the men’s team and initial make-up of the India ‘A’ as well as discussions regarding senior team for the tour of England.
India ‘A’ is scheduled to play two four-day matches starting on May 30, before the Test team kickstarts the five-match series against England at Headingley from June 20. This would be India’s first Test series after losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia 3-1. India last won a Test series in England all the way back in 2007.
Meanwhile, as per the 2023/24 central contracts given to 30 players of the senior men’s team, the BCCI had divided them into four categories - Grade A+ players being paid Rs seven crore, while Grade A, Grade B and Grade C players were to receive Rs. five crore, Rs. three crore and Rs. one crore respectively.
It would be interesting to see if Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja retain their A+ contracts, considering they retired from T20Is after last year’s World Cup win. In the past, MS Dhoni was slotted in the top category of the annual retainers despite retiring from Tests in December 2014.
Shreyas Iyer, who was India’s leading run-getter in the recent Champions Trophy win, can re-enter the centrally contracted players list after being a notable exclusion last year. All-rounder Axar Patel, who played a vital role in India’s unbeaten run in the T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy, also stands a good chance to earn a promotion.
Varun Chakaravarthy, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Abhishek Sharma, who have been stellar performers for India in different formats in the last 12 months, are in contention to earn their first-ever central contracts.
--IANS
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