Ajinkya Rahane endorses BCCI's domestic cricket priority amid Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer's contract controversy

Outcast Indian batter who led India towards that famous Test series win in Australia in 2020/21, Ajinkya Rahane hailed BCCI for giving importance to domestic cricket. Rahane said this in light of the apex board constantly asking players nationwide to go on and play the domestic leagues as they will be selected on the basis of their performance over there.

Ajinkya Rahane, who last appeared for the Indian team during the ICC World Test Championship final in June 2023, thanked the BCCI for their will to revive the situation of the Ranji Trophy. This move came after centrally contracted players like Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were reluctant to feature in the tournament despite repeated reminders.

The national selectors along with the Indian team management would have noticed it and had asked the BCCI to intervene and take necessary steps. What followed was a direct message from BCCI’s honorable secretary Jay Shah threatening players about the consequences of snubbing the Ranji Trophy.

Ajinkya Rahane says giving players exposure to domestic cricket is very important

After navigating the Mumbai team towards their 42nd Ranji Trophy title, Ajinkya Rahane highlighted the importance of giving young players exposure to domestic cricket. For the last couple of years, domestic cricket’s relevance has gone down due to the IPL providing a solid financial option for the players. But since the latest directory from BCCI opposes that, players will also have to prove their mettle domestically.

“I want to mention about BCCI for giving importance to domestic cricket, which is a very good thing. Allowing players to go and play domestic cricket is very important,” Ajinkya Rahane told PTI. 

Recently, a lot of developments have taken place in Indian cricket. First was BCCI’s player retainership announcement which saw them leave out Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan for their Ranji snub. Then Rohit Sharma’s team India defeated England by 4-1 in the 5-match Test series which concluded last week in Dharamshala.

On that very day, Jay Shah also announced the brand new Test scheme to promote red-ball cricket in the country and back players to play the format by releasing an exclusive incentive system. The scheme will reward those players with an extra 25-45 lakhs depending upon the amount of red-ball matches they play in a calendar year.

While the scheme will benefit upcoming players like Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan among others, veterans like Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara cannot anymore benefit from it.

Ajinkya Rahane speaks about Ranji Trophy win

In the same interview, Ajinkya Rahane was then asked to speak about how he led Mumbai towards their 42nd Ranji Trophy title defeating Vidarbha in the final. Mumbai defeated their state rivals by 169 runs at the iconic Wankhede stadium where Ajinkya Rahane also gave his contribution 73 off 143.

Rahane took pride in the fact that players from Mumbai are getting senior call-ups every now and then which speaks volumes about the state’s competency.

“For us, what is important is that (in the) last couple of years, as a team we are playing good cricket. Our players are actually going into Indian team and representing Indian team which is a very good sign for Mumbai cricket again,” Rahane added. 

“I’m not too bothered about other teams, but from here on, for Mumbai cricket, it is important to keep growing, keep thinking about how can we get better as a team in all the formats. We want to repeat this in coming years so our focus will be on that,” Ajinkya Rahane concluded.