IPL or Ranji Trophy? The debate has peaked in Indian cricket at the moment with the cricketers clearly prioritising the cash-rich league and staying away from domestic cricket, especially Ranji Trophy, despite being fit and available. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah had clearly stated recently that the players will have to play domestic cricket if they are fit while he had also stated that no excuse will be entertained.
Reportedly, BCCI had also mailed the players earlier this week, to feature in the next round of Ranji Trophy starting from February 16. However, that hasn't happened even as the last league stage round got underway with the likes of Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer and Deepak Chahar skipping the red-ball match for their state team. Jharkhand are facing Rajasthan at home in this round and both teams are missing Kishan and Chahar respectively. For the unversed, Kishan is fit and is training in Baroda alongside his Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya.
Moreover, Shreyas Iyer got dropped from the India Test squad in the ongoing England series after the second Test. While there were contrasting reports around his injury, it is understood that even he was one of the players BCCI specifically asked to play first-class cricket.
What did Jay Shah say?
BCCI secretary Jay Shah, while speaking at the stadium renaming ceremony, had stated that he would send a directive to all the fit players to play domestic cricket. "If you are fit then no excuse will be entertained. This applies to all centrally contracted players, they have to play. The player cannot decide his future, the selectors need to decide that. If the player is good in red-ball, he has to play," he had said.
