Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan lost their places in the list of annual BCCI contracts released on Wednesday for making themselves unavailable to play domestic cricket, which is the first such instance for players losing the board’s contract for reasons other than non-performance.

WHY THAT DECISION
The BCCI arrived at the decision after middle-order batsman Iyer and wicketkeeper Kishan didn’t turn up to play for their respective state teams in domestic competition.

The duo chose to stay away despite reportedly a letter from BCCI secretary Jay Shah to the players, making it mandatory for contracted players to be part of domestic tournaments.
Reason given by Iyer: Back and groin pain, but found okay by the BCCI medical team, according to an Indian Express report.
Reason given by Kishan: Sought break for personal reasons. Did not report to National Cricket Academy or state unit; trained on his own.

WHY HARDIK PANDYA RETAINED HIS CONTRACT DESPITE NOT PLAYING DOMESTIC CRICKET
Hardik kept his Grade A contract because he was recovering from an ankle injury that he suffered during the World Cup and therefore couldn’t play any competitive cricket since then.
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT IYER, KISHAN
In the year of the ICC T20 World Cup, which is scheduled in June and will be jointly hosted by the US and the West Indies, it seriously hampers the chances of the two players to be selected for the premier T20 tournament.
Iyer had a good ODI World Cup, scoring 468 runs, and Kishan is considered a white-ball specialist. So not playing the T20 World Cup can hurt their national career, especially in limited-overs cricket.

CAN THEY RETURN TO NATIONAL TEAM WITH GOOD SHOW IN IPL
As per reports, that will entirely be the call of the BCCI Selection Committee, but going by BCCI’s diktat on participation in domestic cricket, they are now likely to be considered for selection only after performing in domestic circuit.
Since BCCI cracked the whip, Iyer has returned to Mumbai squad for their Ranji Trophy semi-final against Tamil Nadu, while Kishan played in the DY Patil T20 Cup.
WHAT ROHIT SHARMA SAID
“Jin logon ko bhookh hai, hum unhi logon ko mauka denge. Agar hunger nahi hai to unko khila ke koi matlab nahi hai (We will give chances to only those who have the hunger to succeed. There’s no point in playing those who don’t have the hunger).”

THE BCCI CONTRACT LIST
The four categories in the list feature 30 players in all.
Grade A+ (Rs 7 Crore): Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah
Grade A (Rs 5 crore): KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj
Grade B (Rs 3 crore): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant
Grade C (Rs 1 crore): Shardul Thakur, Rinku Singh, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Tilak Verma, Ravi Bishnoi, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson, Mukesh Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Rajat Patidar, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna