Xtra Time Web Desk: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has terminated the central contracts of India cricketers Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer. The Indian cricket board on Wednesday announced the Annual Player Contracts for Team India (Senior Men) for the 2023-24 season (October 1st, 2023 to September 30th, 2024). The development comes in wake of BCCI secretary Jay Shah cracking the whip on players skipping domestic cricket.
The BCCI media release said, “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.
In a big move the board also shortlisted four fast bowlers on recommendation of the Selection Committee to provide Fast Bowling contracts to Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa.
There are 30 cricketers who have been awarded player retainership. Here is the complete list of Annual Player Contracts:
Grade A+ (4 cricketers)
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A (6 cricketers)
R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.
Grade B (5 cricketers)
Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Grade C (15 cricketers)
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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Additionally, athletes who meet the criteria of playing a minimum of 3 Tests or 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period will automatically be included in Grade C on a pro-rata basis. For instance, 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.
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