The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has written to state associations after centrally contracted players weren’t included for the Duleep Trophy 2025-27 opener. Reverting to the zonal system, the teams weren’t picked by national selectors but by zonal selectors.
BCCI lays down the law
BCCI’s general manager of cricket operations, Abey Kuruvilla, emailed all associations, but it was primarily written for the South Zone, since they included none of KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, Prasidh Krishna, Sai Sudharsan, and Mohammed Siraj. All are part of India’s Test team and are on a month-long break. Moreover, none of them have been included in the squad for the Asia Cup 2025.
“To uphold its prestige and ensure the highest quality of competition, it’s imperative that all currently available India players are selected for their respective zonal teams. Requesting the Zonal Convenors to ensure that all the current India players who are available to play the Duleep Trophy should be picked,” Kuruvilla wrote, according to The Indian Express.
Guidelines for contracted players
Last year, the BCCI made participation in the domestic tournaments for centrally contracted players mandatory. The likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma even played in the Ranji Trophy after the mandate. Keeping that in mind, Kuruvilla instructed these players to adhere to the guidelines.
“Participation in domestic matches: All players contracted or otherwise who make themselves available for selection into Team India shall participate in domestic matches conducted by BCCI. In case any player opts not to participate in any domestic cricket tournaments in spite of availability, he/she shall not be considered for selection unless a prior recommendation is obtained to skip the match/tournament form the national coach and the chairman of the selection committee, and prior approval from the BCCI. In case of any leave is granted, the same shall be considered on the basis of some valid and cogent reason,” Kuruvilla added.
South Zone was the first to announce their Duleep Trophy squad and has named Tilak Varma as the captain. The BCCI had no qualms about that but wanted Rahul, Sundar, Krishna, Sudharsan, and Siraj to play.
Several other international players like Test captain Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, and Shreyas Iyer will feature in the Duleep Trophy as well. Naturally, BCCI wants the South Zone to include contracted players in the team. But as of now, it’s unclear whether that’ll happen or not.
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