‘If players like Hardik don’t want to play..’ – Former India pacer Irfan Pathan fumes in anger over Indian Cricket Board’s central contracts policy

Indian Cricket Board has announced the annual contract list in which surprisingly Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer have not been included. Both the players had not given their participation in domestic cricket due to which the Indian Cricket Board had taken this decision.

The Board decided to take this action because Ishan Kishan took a break from cricket mentioning ‘mental fatigue,’ however he was found  partying in Dubai. Later on Ishan also played cricket with Pandya brothers but did not play any Ranji game.

Shreyas Iyer scored 526 runs in the Cricket World Cup 2023. He was the third-highest scorer for India. On the other hand, wicketkeeper batter from Jharkhand, Ishan Kishan had scored back-to-back three consecutive half-centuries in ODIs against West Indies. But unfortunately, the Indian Cricket Board released them from annual central contracts.

Shreyash Iyer out from India’s Test Squad after the second Test against England

Irfan Pathan expressed his views on X (formerly known as Twitter) and backed Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer. According to the former India pacer, this decision is not fair to Iyer and Ishan. “They are talented cricketers, both Shreyas and Ishan. Hoping they bounce back and come back stronger. If players like Hardik don’t want to play red-ball cricket, should he and others like him participate in white-ball domestic cricket when they aren’t on national duty? If this doesn’t apply to all, then Indian cricket won’t achieve the desired results!” Irfan Pathan

Earlier this month, the Indian Cricket Board advised players to give priority to playing domestic cricket when not playing for the national team. “Please note,” the Indian Cricket Board said in the statement. “The Indian Cricket Board has recommended that all players give priority to playing domestic cricket when they are not representing the national team,” the statement said. Shreyas Iyer was not featured in Mumbai’s Ranji team for the final league match for his back spasm, on the other hand, Ishan has not played any Ranji matches for Jharkhand in this season due to mental fatigue.

Here is the list of central contracts of the Indian Cricket Board:

Grade A Plus – 7 crores

(Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja)

Grade A – 5 crores

(R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya)

Grade B – 3 crores

(Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal)

Grade C – 1 crore