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

Team India. (Photo Source: BCCI)

The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the annual player contracts for 2023-24 on Wednesday, February 28 as several big players failed to make the cut. India captain Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli are retained in the A+ category along with Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.

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 C category while Iyer was a part of the B 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. In the media release, BCCI Secretay Jay Shah specially mentioned that all players should give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.

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. However, the move seemed to have come too late as the Board had already decided to show them the door. 

Apart from them, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Umesh Yadav, and Yuzvendra Chahal, who’ve fallen out of favour, have also failed to grab a contract.

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

Category C includes a long list of players such as 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.

The Selection Committee also recommended Fast Bowling contracts for the following athletes 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.