'They should have played': Lal on exclusion of Iyer, Kishan from BCCI's contracts

NEW DELHI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (

BCCI

) took a couple of bold decisions as it unveiled its list of centrally-contracted players on Wednesday.
While, India captain Rohit Sharma, batting maestro

Virat Kohli

, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, and all-rounder

Ravindra Jadeja

have retained their positions in the top tier. The exclusion of batter

Shreyas Iyer

and wicket-keeper

Ishan Kishan

from the list has garnered quite a stir since the announcement.

Kishan has not been part of the Indian team since December, when he left the squad citing personal reasons in the middle of the South Africa tour. And despite the BCCI’s clear instructions to the players to participate in the domestic red-ball tournament (namely Ranji Trophy), when not on national duty and are fit, Kishan’s absence from the contract is attributed to non-participation in his state team’s, Jharkhand, Ranji campaign.

On the other hand, middle-order batter Iyer found himself out of the Indian team after the second Test against England in the ongoing series. Despite recovering from slight niggles, he did not make himself available for Mumbai's Ranji quarterfinal against Baroda. Even though he has been named in the squad for the Ranji semi-finals, scheduled to commence on March 2, Iyer found himself out of the BCCI list.
Speaking exclusively to

TimesofIndia.com,

Madan Lal

, a member of the 1983 Cricket World Cup-winning India squad, appreciated BCCI's attempt to restore the credentials of

first-class cricket

in India.

"If the BCCI told them to play first-class cricket, they should have gone and played. No one is bigger than the game. The BCCI should be given the credit as they are making it mandatory to play first-class cricket. Most of the players nowadays are taking first-class cricket for granted because of the IPL. Definitely, the BCCI made a rule that every player should go and play first-class cricket. So if you don't follow the rules, then they have to take some action and set an example for others," Madan Lal said.
While acknowledging the potentials of both Ishan and Shreyas, Lal opines that their exclusion from the central contract comes as a result of the board's decision to discipline the players, adding, "They have to play (first-class cricket) if they are fit. The main thing is fitness. If they are fit, then they can play the first-class season. But a good season in IPL can always be beneficial, and there is no doubt about their class. They have done so well here and there. But it is the BCCI making sure that the boys are disciplined."

In the absence of Kishan and Iyer,

Dhruv Jurel

and Sarfaraz Khan have made notable contributions in the ongoing Test series against England. However, the former Indian all-rounder does not believe that the emergence of Jurel and Sarfaraz has led the BCCI to snub Kishan and Iyer.
"It is true that players like Sarfaraz and Jurel are coming. But Kishan and Shreyas here have done well. It's not that they are there without the performances. But the good thing is that we have a bench strength to replace them. And it's very, very important to have team B as well as discipline within the team if we want to produce a better result," Lal told TimesofIndia.com.