Kirti Azad, a member of the 1983 World Cup-winning team, expressed his support on Thursday for the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) directive that cricketers should participate in the Ranji Trophy. He praised the directive as a positive step and insisted that it should apply to all players on the Indian team, including stars like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Azad voiced his disapproval of the decision to exclude Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer, who are currently out of favor, from the list of centrally-contracted players after they disregarded the directive to play in the Ranji Trophy. He argued that the emphasis on the Indian Premier League (IPL) should not detract from the importance of domestic cricket, which he described as "real cricket."
Azad contended that all players, regardless of their stature, should return to domestic cricket whenever they have free time. He pointed out that playing for their state not only keeps them in touch with the game but also honors the platform that enabled them to represent their country.
The former cricketer questioned the fairness of penalizing only Kishan and Iyer, arguing that the same standards should apply to everyone. He also expressed concern about whether current players are participating enough in domestic cricket, noting that many senior players from his era regularly played for their state teams.
Azad highlighted the contrast between Indian players' reluctance to play domestic cricket and English cricketers' willingness to participate in county cricket when not selected for the national team. He commended players like Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan for balancing their commitments to T20 cricket and the Ranji Trophy, and emphasized the importance of domestic cricket in helping bowlers maintain their rhythm.
