Hardik Pandya's Grade A Contract: BCCI's Favor or Merit? A Closer Look

The decision to keep Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan out of central contracts is in the headlines, while there was a lot of discussion on the inclusion of Hardik Pandya. According to sources, the selectors and BCCI gave the contract to Pandya only after he promised that during any white-ball series with the national team, he would play for Baroda in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 and Vijay Hazare Trophy in domestic cricket.

So this is why Hardik Pandya got Grade A contract

Apart from Shreyas and Ishan, Pandya's selection in the Grade A list of annual contracts was also discussed in the recent selection meeting. After recovering from an ankle injury suffered during the World Cup in October, Pandya only returned to competitive cricket last week in the DY Patil tournament, where he was playing for Reliance. Like Ishan, Pandya was also practicing individually in Vadodara, but what worked in his favor was that he kept reporting to the National Cricket Academy (NCA) from time to time to get his fitness assessed.

BCCI official told the real reason

However, according to a top BCCI official, Pandya has also assured that if he is not busy with international commitments, he will participate in domestic tournaments. The official said, "We have spoken to Pandya; he has been advised to play domestic white-ball tournaments when he is available. At present, as per the assessment of the BCCI medical team, he is not fit to bowl in red-ball formats. "He is not in a good position. So it is not possible for him to play in the Ranji Trophy. But if India has no white-ball series, he will have to play other domestic tournaments; otherwise, he may miss out on the contract."

Irfan Pathan raised questions on the attitude of the board

On the other hand, former cricketers have welcomed the decision to release Shreyas and Ishaan from the contract. At the same time, Irfan Pathan raised questions about Pandya's selection on Twitter. He said, "Both of them (Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer) are talented cricketers. Hopefully, they will bounce back and come back stronger. But if a player like Hardik does not want to play red-ball cricket, then should he and others like him say, "Who should participate in white-ball cricket when they are not on the national team? If this rule does not apply to everyone, then Indian cricket will not achieve the desired results."

BCCI can take this decision

It is worth noting that in the future, BCCI can also give instructions to the contracted players that when they are not on the national team, they will have to report to the cricket association of their respective states. It has been seen many times before that in the middle of the domestic season, players from many states join their respective IPL franchises in small camps, due to which the cricket associations of the states are not happy. For example, Shreyas Iyer joined the Kolkata Knight Riders camp after missing the Ranji match with Mumbai.