NEW DELHI: Indian batsman Suresh Raina was one of the big names to have dropped from the latest central contracts list released by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Committee of Administrators (COA).
But a former Uttar Pradesh Ranji Trophy coach has come up with quite an unusual reason of Raina being dropped from the players’ contract list, “it’s his inclination towards his family”.
According to reports citing the same coach, the 30-year-old is now considered a “reluctant cricketer”, apparently more focused on his family and setting up his own business.
“His priorities have changed after he became a family man. I have noticed that he has not been concentrating on his game. He has become a reluctant cricketer. He just played three Ranji matches for UP this season and didn’t turn out for Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Hazare tournaments,” the coach, who did not want to be named, told Mid-day.
“With so many youngsters on the horizon, his chances of a comeback into Indian Test or ODI teams are bleak. He can still eye the T20s, but it will depend a lot on his IPL form where he will lead Gujarat Lions again.”
Though Raina was part of India’s last T20I series against England in February, 2017, he has not been in the ODI and Test teams since 2015.
It was also the year that Raina got married to childhood friend Priyanka Chaudhary. Raina became a father in 2016. Recently, the BCCI has doubled the annual retainer fee for the players in central contracts, while increasing the match fee. Grade A, B and C contracted players will now receive amounts of Rs. 2 crore, Rs. 1 crore and Rs. 50 lakh per annum, respectively.
Out-of-favour opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan was demoted to Grade C in the list of contracted players, which was updated by the BCCI on Wednesday. He had earlier been listed in Grade B.
The BCCI’s contract list for 2016-17
Grade A (Rs 2 crore): Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, M Vijay.
In: Pujara (moved up), Jadeja (up), Vijay (up).
Grade B (Rs 1 crore): Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuvraj Singh.
In: Rahul (moved up), Saha (up), Bumrah, Yuvraj.
Out: Suresh Raina, M Vijay (moved up), Pujara (up), Rayudu (down), Dhawan (down).
Grade C (Rs 50 lakh): Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, Ashish Nehra, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur, Rishabh Pant.
In: Dhawan (moved down), Rayudu (down), Pandey, Nair, Pandya, Nehra, Jadhav, Chahal, Patel, Jayant, Singh, Thakur, Pant.
Out: Stuart Binny, Mohit Sharma, Varun Aaron, Karn Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, S Aravind, Jadeja (moved up), Saha (up), Rahul (up).
