BCCI announce central contracts for 2023-24 season, Iyer-Kishan face the axe

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the annual player contracts for the 2023-24 season on Wednesday, February 28, as several big players failed to make the cut. A total of 35 players earned a contract across four grades; namely A+, A, B, C, and fast bowling. Indian captain Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli are retained in the A+ category along with Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja. Players in the A+ category earn INR 7 crore annually, while Grade A fetches INR 5 crore, followed by INR 3 Crore and INR 1 Crore for categories B and C, respectively.

On the other hand, Ravichandran Ashwin, Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Shami were retained in the A category while Mohammed Siraj, Shubman Gill and KL Rahul have been promoted from B to A. However, the biggest exclusion from the list of players was of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer. Notably, Iyer was a part of the B category while Kishan was a part of the C category in the 2022-23 contract lists.

In a statement, the BCCI informed that the two players were not considered for the annual contracts in the round of recommendations. There were widespread reports that the duo was likely to face the axe from contract lists following their reluctance to play domestic cricket despite regular directives from the board.

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In the media release, BCCI secretary Jay Shah stressed the significance of players prioritizing participation in domestic cricket during periods when they are not on national team duty. Following the controversy, Kishan has finally made his appearance in the DY Patil T20 tournament, while Iyer has made himself available for Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy 2024 semi-final against Tamil Nadu, which will commence on March 2, 2024.

However, the move seemed to have come a bit too late as the board had already decided to show them the door. Besides them, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Umesh Yadav, and Yuzvendra Chahal, who've fallen out of favor and don't seem to be in the reckoning and scheme of things anymore, have also failed to grab a contract.

Meanwhile, Kuldeep Yadav has been promoted from Grade C to Grade B while Yashasvi Jaiswal, who’s earned his maiden contract, also finds himself in Grade B along with Suryakumar Yadav, Axar Patel and Rishabh Pant.

BCCI includes special fast-bowling contracts for five players

Category C includes a long list of 15 players namely 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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The Selection Committee also recommended Fast Bowling contracts for pacers Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal, and Vidwath Kaverappa. Furthermore, players meeting the criteria of playing a minimum of 3 Tests or 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period (October 1st, 2023 to September 30th, 2024) will automatically be included in Grade C on a pro-rata basis. Therefore, Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel, with two Tests under their belts, respectively, will become contract beneficiaries should they participate in the fifth Test against England in Dharamsala.