BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Wednesday made it clear that India’s centrally contracted players will have to mandatorily play in the domestic red ball tournaments and the board will not tolerate any excuses.
“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 said as quoted by PTI.
Shah, however, said that the players’ participation in these domestic tournaments will happen in accordance with the guidance from the national cricket academy.
“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.
“If somebody is asking for a personal leave in 15 years then it is his right to ask for it. Virat is not that kind of a player that he would ask for a leave without any reason. We must back and trust our players,” he said while talking about Virat Kohliwho ha withdrawn from the ongoing series against England citing personal reasons..
But the BCCI secretary did not give any details if Kohli, like Rohit Sharma who was confirmed as the T20 captain for the upcoming World Cup, would be available for the showpiece event. “We will talk about Virat later,” Shah said.
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First uploaded on: 15-02-2024 at 00:07 IST
