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Former Indian wicketkeeper Kirti Azad has backed the Board of Control in India (BCCI)'s new directive of insisting players fully participate in domestic competitions when not playing for the national side.
Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were recently excluded from the BCCI annual contracts due to their non-participation in the ongoing Ranji Trophy games.
Speaking to the PTI, Azad felt the rule should apply to everyone, including star cricketers like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
"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," said Azad .
"That (state) gave you the opportunity to be a player, get selected and then play for the country. Just to penalise the two (Iyer and Kishan) is not correct, I think everybody should be penalised. Everybody should be seen with the same mirror," he added.
Kohli has played only one Ranji game (in 2021) since making his Test debut, and Rohit hasn't featured for his state in the red-ball format since 2015.
While Kishan was part of India's squad for the South African tour in December last year, Shreyas played as recently as the second Test of the ongoing series against England.
"My question is, are they playing enough domestic cricket?" - Kirti Azad
When asked about the potential of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan returning to the Indian side, Kirti Azad retorted by questioning their playing domestic cricket.
The 1983 World Cup winner highlighted how the former players valued playing for their respective states.
"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," said Kirti.
"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. 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.
Kirti further praised the newcomers Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan for representing their states in the Ranji Trophy despite playing T20 cricket. The duo recently made their national debut in the third Test of the ongoing series against England.
