NEW DELHI: Member of the 1983 World Cup-winning team Kirti Azad on Thursday backed the BCCI's directive for cricketers to play Ranji Trophy, saying it's a good move and the rule should be applicable to every India team player, including Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
The out-of-favour duo of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were excluded from the list of centrally-contracted players after they ignored the directive to play Ranji Trophy.
"It (directive) is a very good move. Everybody should be playing Ranji Trophy cricket, but currently the emphasis is on the IPL. It is good, it is entertaining but the real cricket is the (five) days' cricket. Playing in domestic cricket is good, it keeps you in touch.
"But whenever you are free, even if you're a Rohit Sharma or a Virat Kohli, you should go back and play domestic cricket for the state. That (state) gave you the opportunity to be a player, get selected and then play for the country.
He felt that penalising just Ishan and Iyer wasn't right.
"Just to penalise the two is not correct, I think everybody should be penalised. Everybody should be seen with the same mirror," Azad told PTI Video.
Azad declined to comment on whether this was the potential end of the road for Ishan and Iyer after their names were excluded from the list of centrally-contracted players.
"My question is, are they playing enough domestic cricket? They are playing T20 cricket, nowadays and every other state has a T20 cricket league. Back in the days when we were starting our careers, players like Bishan Singh Bedi, Madan Lal, Surinder Amarnath, Mohinder Amarnath, Chetan Chauhan, Sunil Gavaskar, Sandeep Patil, Karsan Ghavri played alongside youngsters like me and Ravi Shastri.
1/10:Annual central contracts: BCCI drops Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan
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2/10:BCCI
<p>BCCI, on Wednesday, sent a strong message that not playing in the Ranji Trophy unless you are on national duty or are unfit will not be tolerated. </p>
3/10:The exclusions
<p>BCCI excluded India's middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer and wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan from the list of 30 centrally contracted players. </p>Getty Images
4/10:Shreyas Iyer
<p>Shreyas Iyer missed the last league match and the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal, citing back pain, but has been included for the semifinal against Tamil Nadu from March 2 in Mumbai. </p>PTI
5/10:Ishan Kishan
<p>Ishan Kishan came back midway from India's tour of South Africa due to 'personal reasons' in December last year, missed the Test series against England and didn't play in the Ranji for Jharkhand. </p>TNN
6/10:KL Rahul
<p>Middle-order batsmen KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and pacer Mohammed Siraj have all been elevated to the Grade A category. </p>Getty Images
7/10:Rishabh Pant
<p>Rishabh Pant, who has been out of action since January 2023 while recovering from a horrific road accident, finds himself in Grade B. </p>Getty Images
8/10:Grade A
<p>Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Shami have been retained in Grade A along with Hardik Pandya. </p>Getty Images
9/10:Top grade
<p>Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja have been retained in the A+ category. </p>Getty Images
10/10:Axar Patel
<p>Axar Patel, who had a Grade A contract last season, has been moved to Grade B after losing his place in the India Test side to Kuldeep Yadav. </p>PTI"All these senior Test team players would play for their sides, would play for the pride of their state which seems missing in the youngsters nowadays," he added.
He questioned why India players had issues playing domestic cricket while England cricketers willingly played county cricket when not in the national side.
"Look at county cricket; there are 20-plus counties and there are numerous three-day and four-day games along with T20 cricket, but every player is involved there. If a player is left out of the Test squad, then he returns to play for his county.
"So why can't we have our players playing those domestic matches, that's the big question," he added.
He praised players like Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan for finding the balance between T20 cricket for their IPL teams and playing Ranji Trophy.
"There are players like Jurel, Sarfaraz who do play T20 cricket but, at the end of the day, are also representing their states in the Ranji trophy. The bowlers also get into the rhythm of bowling longer spells when they regularly play domestic cricket. It (Ranji) is not a form of slam-bang and thank you," he said.
