India players Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer have been removed from the annual retainership contract list. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the contracts for the senior men’s team cricketers for the 2023-24 cycle on Wednesday, February 28.
Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have been removed after missing the majority of the ongoing domestic cricket season. They failed to adhere to the instructions of BCCI secretary Jay Shah. Ishan Kishan was in Grade C, while Shreyas Iyer was in Grade B in the 2022-23 season contracts. In the statement released by the BCCI, they wrote,
“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 statement further added.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja were retained in the top bracket (A+). Apart from the 30 players included in the annual contract list, the athletes who meet the criteria of playing a minimum of 3 Tests 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period will automatically be included in Grade C on a pro-rata basis. The likes of Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan, having played 2 Test matches so far, will be inducted into Grade C if they participate in the Dharamsala Test Match, i.e., the 5th Test of the ongoing series against England.
Annual Retainership contract list
Grade A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A: R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.
Grade B: Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Grade C: 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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