The inaugural Women’s Premier League (WPL) was about to conclude, when suddenly at around 10:27pm on Sunday, 26 March, an email popped up in the inbox.
If you have been following Indian cricket for the past four years, this is very much par for the course. Emails from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) land up after 10pm, because the media laps it up whatever time it lands in their inbox.
The mandarins of the BCCI must have been really tied up, as always, watching the finale of the WPL, that they decided to put out the information so late on a Sunday night. After all, everyone else had nothing much to do.
The media was then left to interpret the email in their own different ways because very little information was forthcoming from the board as ever. The list of centrally contracted players, effective from 1 October 2022, was announced nearly five months after it was due.
The ‘official’ announcement of the annual player contracts is a massive step up over last year when the Board did not even bother to make anything public. The list for the 2021-22 season was revealed as ever by the efficient 'Mr Source' and everyone accepted it as gospel truth.
Hence a huge vote of thanks is due to the Board mandarins for considering it important to let us mere mortals know about the 2022-23 contracted players.
The list is reflective of truth as of 1 October 2022. There are a few inconsistencies as ever, but the delay in announcing the contracted players list year after year shows the lack of professionalism in the set-up.
Dhawan Gets Another Life, Bhuvi Runs Out of Those
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was very much a part of the Indian T20I set-up on 1 October 2022, because it was then the time for the T20 World Cup. Kumar also travelled to New Zealand with the Indian T20I squad under Hardik Pandya. The pacer has not played any cricket since then, and hence, it is understandable why he is no longer part of the scheme of things.
But in the same vein, the name of Shikhar Dhawan still features in the contracts. He was the stand-in ODI captain for much of the last two years as the big boys were busy playing T20I cricket. Dhawan did continue playing ODI cricket even after the main men returned on the Bangladesh tour, but post that, his international career has come to a grinding halt.
Much like Kumar, Dhawan is also unlikely to feature in the Indian colours ever again. But we do not know if the veteran has been given a glimmer of hope with his inclusion in the list of contracted players.
The Excluded Ones Ft. Ishant Sharma
The other names that we think were part of the mysterious 2021-22 contracted list and have been left out are purely based on speculation. The list was never made public, and consequently, all the names mentioned forthwith will be based on pure conjecture.
When the central contracts were first started in 2004 after seven years of protracted negotiations, two names featured then in the first list: Aakash Chopra and Parthiv Patel. These two did not play for India in either Test or ODI from about December 2004 to September 2005. But the Board, at that time, were at pains to explain to us that central contracts do not in any way mean surety of selection in the Indian squad.
Something similar is applicable even now for the names that are missing.
Ishant Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha and Ajinkya Rahane have been left out, which means that they are no longer in the scheme of things. Also missing out are Mayank Agarwal, Deepak Chahar and Hanuma Vihari.
The Promoted Ones Ft. Ravindra Jadeja
The remaining names reflect the current dynamics in Indian cricket.
Ravindra Jadeja is being rewarded with a step up for his triumphant return to the Indian Test squad against Australia, but didn’t he miss much of cricket in the early part of the contract period?
Hardik Pandya is now the ‘unofficially official’ T20 captain, because, no one is willing to say that he is in charge. He is also the official ODI vice-captain, so there is a promotion for him of two grades no less.
Suryakumar Yadav has shown in the past couple of years just what India needs in T20I cricket and hence he gets promoted. The same is the case with Shubman Gill, who has become India’s all-format opening batter.
KL Rahul’s Nosedive
The demotion of KL Rahul shows just how poorly his stocks are faring currently. He was India’s designated all-format vice-captain last year. Moreover, at the start of 2022, he was India’s stand-in captain in Tests and ODIs in South Africa.
However, he then suffered an injury, and despite making a comeback in late 2022 and even leading India on the Bangladesh tour, his continued run of poor scores and public criticism meant that he is not the favoured choice anymore.
Rahul has also lost his role as vice-captain in Tests and white-ball cricket, hence it is hardly a surprise that he continues to be in free fall.
Shardul Thakur is the preferred seam-bowling all-rounder in Tests when India plays abroad. He is also looked at favourably in ODIs, albeit, has not been considered in T20Is for the last two years. Also with the return of Pandya for the ODIs, Thakur’s role has diminished. Hence, he also shows a fall in the list.
Kuldeep Yadav’s presence shows that this present regime is looking at him favourably, especially in the ODI set-up.
Other names like Sanju Samson, Deepak Hooda, Ishan Kishan, Arshdeep Singh and Srikar Bharat have been rewarded for their performances. But of this list, only Kishan is an all-format player, while the others are not considered for more than one.
There are other players who have not been considered for the contracts but who have featured in the past five months like the exciting express speedster Umran Malik, the eternal journeyman of Indian domestic cricket, Jaydev Unadkat, and Rahul Tripathi. Their time will come as well.
There was a time when the moment you played a game in a year you would automatically enter the contract list in the lowest grade. That time has passed.
The Chetan Sharma Debacle
Also, what has passed is the basics of providing information. The contract list is usually drawn up by a panel consisting of the board president, secretary, chairman of selectors and head coach.
It has been more than a month since a sting caught Chetan Sharma, the chair of selectors, talking out of turn. Again, 'Mr Source' reported his resignation, but no official word came from the Board as usual. We still don’t know if Sharma has resigned and if he has resigned who chaired the panel to select players in the Australia series or for Irani Cup.
Also, if Sharma has actually resigned, what is the procedure to replace him?
Guess we will have to wait for another Sunday for the email to suddenly pop up in our inboxes to realise that the new chair of selectors or a selector has been chosen.
Till then, keep pressing F5!
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