Shreyas Iyer, the talented batter from Mumbai, is in the line of fire after the BCCI fired him, and his Indian cricket teammate Ishan Kishan, from the annual contracts. Shreyas Iyer was part of the national team till very recently in the first two Tests against England. However, he was dropped for the last three Tests after a run of poor scores. Later, he skipped a Ranji Trophy match for Mumbai as he claimed he was having a back issue. However, a report in The Indian Express, said the NCA gave a contradictory fitness report on him.
During this time, several media publications have claimed, Shreyas Iyer attended a pre-IPL camp with Kolkata Knight Riders. This seems to have irked the BCCI selectors, who recommend players’ name for central contracts.
According to a report in Revsportz, Iyer went to the KKR Academy to build his workload. “After playing 60 balls in a session, his back was building spasms. He had to build up his resistance. Now he is playing 200 balls per session. In three weeks, he has put on three kilos of muscles. The Mumbai Cricket Association and the Mumbai team head coach (Omkar Salvi) have been kept in the loop. In fact, the Mumbai coach visited the KKR Academy several times to monitor Iyer’s progress. And now he has made himself available for the Ranji Trophy semi-final against Tamil Nadu,” the person said on conditions on anonymity.
“He skipped the IPL to play the World Cup. Even after the surgery, he took three painkiller injections to be pain-free for the World Cup. And yet, the pain returned during the semi-final and the final, and he played through it. Iyer was the only player who wasn’t given a break after the World Cup. He played the home T20I series against Australia and then went to South Africa. After returning from South Africa, he was asked to play a Ranji game in January, ahead of the first two Tests against England. He did that. Doesn’t a player have the liberty to train under a coach of his choice?”
Former Indian cricket team pacer Madan Lal, who was part of the 1983 World Cup-winning team, has praised the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for terminating star duo Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer’s central contracts. While the BCCI didn’t reveal the reason behind the decision to axe Kishan and Iyer, reports have claimed that the board was not happy with the players after both decided to skip domestic games for their state teams, despite being cleared fit by the NCA. Lal lauded BCCI over the polarising move, saying that playing domestic cricket should be made compulsory for those who prioritise IPL over First Class matches.
“If the BCCI told them to play first-class cricket, they should have gone and played. No one is bigger than the game. The BCCI should be given the credit as they are making it mandatory to play first-class cricket. Most of the players nowadays are taking First-class cricket for granted because of the IPL. Definitely, the BCCI made a rule that every player should go and play First-class cricket. So if you don’t follow the rules, then they have to take some action and set an example for others,” Lal told Times of India.
Topics mentioned in this article