Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer faced action for their reluctance to play domestic cricket as they were excluded from the BCCI central contracts. BCCI had repeatedly asked the Indian cricketers to focus on playing domestic cricket when they are playing for the national but it felt continuously on deaf ears. Now, Iyer and Kishan have been thrown out of the central contract list after ignoring the board's directive to play in the Ranji Trophy.

BCCI central contracts

India skipper Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja figured in the A plus category, the highest bracket of the BCCI's central contract. Six cricketers feature in the A category including R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.

Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal have got B category contracts.

As many as 15 athletes have been handed C category contracts including 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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BCCI's statement on Iyer and Kishan

"Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations," said the BCCI in a statement.

The selection committee has also recommended fast bowling contracts for Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa.

"The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team," the statement added.

In a departure from the norm, the BCCI this time has not mentioned the remuneration of the players across the four categories.

Cricketers are normally paid Rs 7 crore per annum in A plus bracket, Rs 5 crore in A, Rs 3 crore in B and Rs one crore in C category, over and above their match fees. PTI BS AH AH