The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Team India all-rounder Hardik Pandya were slammed on social media after the former announced the list of cricketers who were handed central contracts for the 2023-24 season. Amid swirling speculation over the fate of wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan and injury-prone top-order player Shreyas Iyer, the BCCI confirmed that the duo was not included in the cricket body's annual contracts.
Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer created a lot of buzz in recent weeks, largely for the wrong reasons, after the two players decided against the team management and the BCCI's decision to play domestic cricket when they are not employed with the national side.
However, the two batters continuously ignored head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma's dictate, missing a string of Ranji Trophy games, irking the national selection committee led by former India fast bowler Ajit Agarkar.
In particular, Rohit Sharma was quite categorical about the situation, underlining that young cricketers must understand the essence of domestic cricket and should follow the advice given to them by the national selectors and think tank.
He went on to warn them, emphasizing that only players who were willing to work hard would be picked to represent India in international matches. But players not willing to do so would not be considered for selection.
In this context, the BCCI chose not to offer contracts to both Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan.
“Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations,” a statement from the Indian Cricket Board read.
The BCCI's statement, however, didn't go well with the supporters of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan.
Their admirers criticized the board over its stand on Hardik Pandya, who no longer plays red-ball domestic cricket. Similarly, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have missed four-day fixtures of the Ranji Trophy.
But unlike Hardik Pandya, who was included in the list of centrally-contracted players, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan missed out.
This led the fans to describe Hardik Pandya as “selfish”.
Shreyas iyer playing all formats but not a Central contract why ?
And Hardik Pandya not a playing all formats and not fit indian team but select for Central contract why ?Hardik Pandya is a selfish cricketer who gets injured while playing for the Indian team and is available to… pic.twitter.com/NJ0t0ESLuq
— Sitaram Meghwanshi (@sr_panchota) February 29, 2024
Total matches played in 2023 :
• Shreyas Iyer – 26 match, 986 runs.
• Hardik Pandya – 23 match, 571 runs.But Iyer is removed from BCCI'S annual contract and Pandya got the A contract. pic.twitter.com/xFZDPjWONE
— 𝐇𝐲𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐧 𝕏 (@ImHydro45) March 1, 2024
Shreyas iyer was the backbone of india's middle order in world cup. But BCCI excluded him from the annual contract.
On the other side, hardik pandya only plays at the big moments like IPL, world cup and he wants captaincy in any format which he plays.pic.twitter.com/UKd24evCy0
— Haroon Mustafa (@CRICFOOTHAROON) February 28, 2024
Life ho to Hardik Pandya jaisi Varna na ho .
BCCI and Ambani dono meharban..
All formats player Shreyas Iyer has no central contract but Injury prone Hardik has A. pic.twitter.com/ox8xU8FAw4— Satya Prakash (@Satya_Prakash08) February 28, 2024
Nonetheless, a BCCI official and former India opener, Aakash Chopra, explained that Hardik Pandya's case was different from that of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer's.
“We have had discussions with Pandya, who has been told to play domestic white-ball tournaments when he is available. At this stage, according to the assessment of the BCCI's medical team, he is not in a position to bowl in red-ball tournaments. So playing Ranji Trophy is out of the equation for Pandya. But he has to play other white-ball tournaments if there are no India commitments. If not, he will miss out on a contract,” a BCCI official told an Indian media outlet.
“Hardik Pandya's case is very simple. He is not playing red-ball cricket. That ambition or aspiration does not exist anymore. He has not said that as such, but the truth is that he is not available at all for any Test series. So if you are not at all auditioning for Tests, no one will ask you to play first-class cricket. Why would you play four-day games when you don't have that much strength in your body to bowl so many overs and have injury problems? So why should he play (first-class cricket),” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“If he stops for India despite being fit. If he is on break and doesn't want to play Syed Mushtaq Ali or Vijay Hazare Trophy for promotion or a video shoot or other such works. Then you can say he is wrong. But currently he is not. And why would you punish him if he has not made a mistake?” he elaborated.
Hardik Pandya has not featured in the Indian Cricket Team since last year's ODI World Cup before getting injured in between the prestigious tournament.
He recently returned to competitive cricket, participating in the DY Patil T20 tournament. The all-rounder will continue to build momentum ahead of the start of the Indian Premier League (IPL), where he will lead former champions Mumbai Indians in the competition later this month.
BCCI's Central Contracts for 2023/24
Grade A+ (4 Cricketers)
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A (6 Cricketers)
R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.
Grade B (5 Cricketers)
Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Grade C (15 Cricketers)
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 and Rajat Patidar.
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