Former India spinner Kirti Azad backed the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) decision to drop Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan from annual contract after failing to show up in the Ranji Trophy matches for their respective state teams.
Highlighting the importance of red-ball domestic cricket, Azad went on to say that senior players including captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli should also play first-class cricket whenever they get time. Iyer was under a Grade B (Rs 3 crore) contract while Kishan was listed in Grade C (Rs 1 crore) for the last season.
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"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," Azad told
PTI.
"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. That (state) gave you the opportunity to be a player, get selected and then play for the country," he added.
The veteran echoed Irfan Pathan's sentiments and said it was not right to just punish two players when there are others also who are deliberately missing domestic matches.
"Just to penalise the two is not correct, I think everybody should be penalised. Everybody should be seen with the same mirror," Azad said.
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The 1983 World Cup-winning team member further said that players like Sunil Gavaskar and Bishan Singh Bedi used to play domestic cricket with youngsters during their playing days but the pride of playing for the state is missing from the current Indian stars.
"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. 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," the veteran of 142 first-class matches and 6,634 runs said.
Kohli, who welcomed his second child recently with wife Anushka Sharma, is spending some time away from cricket and is not part of the Indian squad for England series. On the other hand, Rohit guided India to a 3-1 series win in Ranchi after winning the match by five wickets. The last Test of the series will be played in Dharamsala on March 7.