BCCI terminates central contracts of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer. Check full contract list here

BCCI on Wednesday announced the central contracts for Indian cricketers for the 2023-24 season and Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were among the notable players to have their contracts terminated by the apex body of Indian cricket. The announcement comes after the two cricketers were reportedly under the ire of the BCCI and the Indian team management for their lack of commitment to the longer format of the game (Test cricket), especially in the domestic circuit.

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The new annual contracts for the senior men's team will begin on 1 October 2023 and run until 30 September 2024. Notably, veteran Indian players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja have found a mention in the Grade A+ central cricketers.

BCCI also confirmed that Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were not considered for the annual contracts during the round of recommendations while also issuing a note of caution which is likely to be aimed at the two players. 

“The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team.” BCCI's statement on the matter read. 

BCCI's release also stated that athletes who meet the criteria of playing a minimum of 3 Test matches, 8 ODIs or 10 T20I games within a specific period will automatically be included in the Grade C contracts on a pro-rata basis. 

BCCI's list of central contract awardees: 

Grade A+ (4 Athletes)

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.

Grade A (6 Athletes)

R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.

Grade B (5 Athletes)

Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Grade C (15 Athletes)

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.