‘Removing players from central contracts could have been avoided’: Manoj Tiwary | Cricket

The absence of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan from the BCCI central contracted players’ list has raised several eyebrows. The two cricketers, who represented India in the ODI World Cup 2023, failed to retain their places as the contracted players. Several reports suggested that the BCCI took the big decision after Iyer and Kishan didn’t play in Ranji Trophy when they were out of the Indian team.

Kishan withdrew his name from the Indian team during the South Africa tour citing mental fatigue, the wicketkeeper batter was later dropped from India’s squad for England Tests. Meanwhile, Iyer was committed from the squad after their first two Tests against England following his underwhelming performances. The BCCI asked the two cricketers to play domestic cricket to get their rhythm back but they decided to give the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals a miss.

Iyer was part of the Grade B contract while the Jharkhand wicketkeeper batter was on the Grade C list last season.

Meanwhile, Manoj Tiwary, who retired from first-class cricket last month, asserted that the decision to remove Iyer and Kishan could have been avoided. He said that the board has delivered a direct message that the cricketers should play domestic cricket to get their way into the team.

“See, removing players from central contracts could have been avoided, though I don’t know what conversation they had in between. But now it is an open message to all that if players are available, they have to play domestic cricket, and that is how you have to protect this tournament,” Tiwary told Sports Now.

Last month, the 38-year-old had posted on X that Ranji Trophy should be “scrapped” and was later fined 20% of his match fee for that remark.

Meanwhile, the veteran Bengal cricketer said that the players now have to take domestic cricket seriously while asserting that the rules should be equal for everyone.

“That is what I also said in my tweet. Now everyone should fall in place, not one or two individuals. The rule has to be equal for all,” Tiwary added.

The domestic cricket stalwart further pointed out how the emergence of Indian Premier League has impacted the young players’s mindset.

“I have seen youngsters and established players speak only about IPL during domestic matches. Even in the zonal matches, when I used to play, their discussions are entirely based on IPL, and that I have seen from close quarters. The conversations, topics and issues mostly surrounded IPL only,” he added.