Nearly midway into the brand new annual retainership cycle, the Board of Management for Cricket in India (BCCI) is but to even start discussions in regards to the males’s central contracts for 2024-25.
“We have now had some deliberation on the ladies’s central contracts however the males’s contracts just isn’t on the agenda within the close to future,” Devajit Saikia, the BCCI secretary, advised Sportstar on Thursday.
This publication additionally understands that the BCCI office-bearers are informally more likely to focus on the central retainer record with chief selector Ajit Agarkar on the sidelines of the Indian Premier League’s (IPL’s) opening tie in Kolkata on Saturday.
The BCCI awards central contacts to males (since 2004-05) and girls (2015-16) for the cycle beginning in October and ending in September, to take care of the consistency together with its AGM cycle. Nevertheless, seldom have the annual contracts been formally introduced earlier than December.
The final cycle noticed the lads’s annual retainer record public on February 28, 5 months into the cycle whereas the ladies’s contracts record was by no means formally introduced. Conventionally, the BCCI president, BCCI secretary and chief selector meet to finalise the contracted gamers’ lists.
Final 12 months, the retainership announcement was highlighted with Shreyas yer and Ishan Kishan not being thought of on account of ignoring home cricket commitments for his or her respective sides.
BCCI insiders attribute the fixed delays over the previous few years to the authorized points BCCI discovered itself in because the 2013 IPL corruption scandal.
The delays have additionally led to a requirement from sure sections of gamers for the contract cycle to be restructured from April to March.
“With no worldwide cricket commitments for the Indian workforce in April and Might, the gradation might be finalised throughout the IPL and the gamers might be safer firstly of a brand new worldwide cycle,” mentioned a participant, citing anonymity.
This time round, the anticipated elevation of Jay Shah from the put up of BCCI secretary to ICC Chair meant the assembly was not convened in November. Thereafter, with Agarkar being away in Australia with the squad and Saikia taking on as secretary solely on January 12, the central contracts’ situation has taken a backseat.