'Ajit Agarkar excluded Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from BCCI central contracts': Jay Shah

Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were denied a central contract after failing to show up for domestic tournaments despite a strict directive from the board.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Friday revealed that the decision to exclude Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from the annual player retainership 2023-24 was taken by chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar, while asserting that "nobody is indispensable". The two were denied a central contract earlier in February this year after failing to show up for domestic tournaments despite a strict directive from the board.

Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were both not named in BCCI's central contract list

Ishan had reportedly taken a mental health break in late December last year, before the start of the Test series against South Africa and remained unavailable for the Test series at home against England and the T20I series against Afghanistan before making his return to IPL.

Iyer, who was dropped from the Indian Test side earlier this year, reportedly missed a few matches in the Ranji Trophy tournament for Mumbai owing to a back injury. However, he faced the wrath of BCCI after it emerged that he had attended a Kolkata Knight Riders' camp in Mumbai during that period. He, however, did return to action in the First Class tournament as he featured in the semifinal and final matches for Mumbai.

Speaking during a media interaction at the BCCI head office on Thursday, Shah said that he decision to exclude then was always in the hands of the chief selector and that his role was only to implement it.

"You can check the constitution. I am just a convener (of the selection meeting)," he said. "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."

Shah also opened up on the details of his conversation with Ishan after Mumbai Indians' match against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad earlier during IPL 2024.

"No, I did not advise him anything. It was just a friendly talk that he should do well and I speak with all players like that," he said.

While there have been a few media reports mentioning an increase in the match fees for domestic players in the country, Shah said there is no such plan.

"We have increased the pay anyway and also incentivised Test cricket. We had increased the pay by 100 per cent in 2022," Shah added.