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Ishan Kishan, along with Shreyas Iyer, has been at the centre of the conversation around players ignoring domestic cricket while prioritising Indian Premier League (IPL). The controversy seems to have reached a crescendo now with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) leaving the pair out of its list of centrally contracted players in 2023/24.
Regardless of the conversations around him, the fact remains that Kishan’s talent and ability with the bat remains unquestionable, as indicated by West Indies great Dwayne Bravo putting up his opinion of the wicketkeeper-batter. Bravo shared photos of himself with Kishan and West Indies star Nicholas Pooran on his Instagram handle. “Two of the most gifted players around @nicholaspooran and Ishan,” said Bravo in his caption.
The BCCI in its announcement of the new list of contracted players specifically mentioned that Iyer and Kishan were “not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations”. The statement further said: “The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.”
Middle order batter Iyer had opted out of two Ranji Trophy ties for Mumbai after being dropped from the national team following the Visakhapatnam Test match due to a series of low scores. While the batter informed the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) that he had discomfort in the back, the National Cricket Academy (NCA) medical team made it clear that the player was passed fit.
Similarly, Kishan who dropped out of the Indian Test team in South Africa last November, for ‘personal reasons’ chose not to make himself available for any of the Ranji Trophy matches for his state team Jharkhand. In the last cycle, Iyer held a Grade B BCCI contract ( ₹3 crore) and Kishan Grade C ( ₹1 crore). While this may not hurt the players monetarily as much – Iyer is Kolkata Knight Riders captain worth ₹12.25 crore and Kishan makes ₹15.25 crore from his Mumbai Indians contract – this is the first time that the Indian board has publicly come down hard on the players for running away from domestic cricket for IPL. “The franchises have been spoken to as well and they agree that the players are wrong,” a senior BCCI official said.
While Kishan has returned to action in the D Y Patil T20 tournament, Iyer will be turning out for Mumbai in the Ranji trophy semi-finals against Tamil Nadu on Saturday.
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