'What About Hardik Pandya': Fans Lash At BCCI For Excluding Shreyas Iyer From Contracts

The BCCI central contract was announced on Wednesday. Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not included in the contract list. And it was not because of any lack of performance, but the board made it clear that the duo was considered due to skipping the last round of Ranji Trophy matches.

Ishan Kishan didn’t play any form of cricket since December last year until playing in the DY Patil T20 Cup recently, after skipping Ranji matches entirely. Shreyas Iyer, who played two Tests against England and one Ranji match before that, didn’t appear for the last Ranji league match for Mumbai, but has now reportedly made himself available for the semi-final.

Earlier this month, Jay Shah, the BCCI Secretary, had sent a letter to the players, warning them of “severe implications” if they skip the last round of Ranji matches if they are fit or not part of the Indian Test team for England series.

Despite this Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer missed the said games, and now what could be only the first part of the “severe implications” both are dropped from the BCCI central contract list for 2023/24.

The BCCI stated, “Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations.

“The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.”

The fans were divided into two opinionated sections. One set of fans concurred with BCCI’s decision to omit the two players who didn’t “show respect” to Ranji matches, while another pointed at the case of Hardik Pandya, who has not played a Ranji match since 2018, and only played white-ball cricket internationally and domestically.

Netizens pointed at the superb form Shreyas Iyer was in during the World Cup 2023, when he smashed a century in the semi-final against New Zealand and is the batter who solved India’s number 4 problem.