Ajit Agarkar Dropped Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from Central Contract List, Jay Shah Reveals

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Original Content: Ajit Agarkar Dropped Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from Central Contract List, Jay Shah Reveals

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) recent announcement of new player contracts sent ripples through the cricketing world, particularly with the omission of two big names: Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan. Now, BCCI secretary Jay Shah has clarified that the decision to drop them from the central contracts list was made solely by chief selector Ajit Agarkar.

The primary reason behind this decision appears to be the players’ lack of domestic cricket participation. While Kishan took a break from the national team, Iyer nursed an injury following the second India-England Test. However, their choice to disregard the directives of head coach Rahul Dravid and secretary Shah regarding Ranji Trophy participation proved to be a turning point.

“You can check the constitution. I am just a convener (of the selection meeting),” Jay Shah said during a media interaction at the BCCI head office on Thursday.

“That decision lies with Ajit Agarkar, even when these two players (Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer) who did not play domestic (cricket), the decision to drop them (from the central contracts list) was only his. My role is just to implement. And we have got new players (in place), like Sanju (Samson). Nobody is indispensable,” he added.

However, Jay Shah did assure that the exclusion wasn’t a rash decision. He revealed that he had spoken with both players after the contracts were announced, a fact previously reported by the media.

The new BCCI Central Contracts categorize players as follows:

• Grade A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja
• Grade A: R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya
• Grade B: Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, 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, Rajat Patidar