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Cricket Players'If selectors and coach want you to play, you have to play...': Jay Shah says 'BCCI won't tolerate tantrums'
The BCCI secretary didn't name any player but his indications were pointed and clear.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah minced no words in making it clear that the centrally contracted Indian cricketers will have to play domestic red-ball cricketer whenever they are available or asked to do so by the selection committee or the team management headed by the captain and head coach.
Ishan Kishan's continued absence from domestic cricket despite being clearly directed by head coach Rahul Dravid to play domestic cricket or cricket of any form if he wants to make a comeback to the Indian side has been one of the major talking points for quite some time now. Kishan asked for some time off midway through the South Africa tour and since then he hasn't played any competitive cricket even though he has been training regularly with Hardik and Krunal Pandya in Vadodara.
With India struggling to find a solid keeper-batter in the home series against England, this would have been the ideal opportunity for Kishan to raise his hand and show the selectors that he is much more than a white-ball cricketer. Still, the left-hander mysteriously has not made himself available for Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy.
Interacting with the media on the sidelines of the renaming of the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium ahead of the India vs England 3rd Test in Rajkot, Shah said the chairman of selectors will be given a free hand to take a call on his own if a player refuses to follow instructions given by the team management.
"They have been informed on phone already and I'm going to write letters as well that if your chairman of selectors, your coach and your captain are asking for it then you will have to play red-ball cricket," Shah told the media.
The BCCI secretary didn't name any player but his indications were clear.
Kishan is not the top Indian cricket absent from the Ranji Trophy despite being fit. Premier all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who hasn't played any cricket since the ankle injury ruled him out of the ODI World Cup last year, has been training at full tilt for a few weeks.
Shah, however, said that it was to happen per the guidance from the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.
“Whatever advice we get from the NCA — say suppose somebody’s body is not able to handle both white-ball and red-ball cricket — so we do not want to impose anything in that regard. (It applies to) whoever is fit and young — we are not going to tolerate any other tantrums. This message is for all centrally contracted players,” Shah said.
“Everyone will have to play, otherwise, the chairman of the selection committee has given me his suggestions and I am going to give him a free hand to let him take his own calls freely,” he added.
