Saba Karim comments on veteran players' BCCI contracts

Saba Karim has believed that some of the senior Indian players’ will be demoted to the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) annual contract after their poor performances on a constant basis over the last year. Even many reports also suggested that the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishant Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha and Bhuvneshwar Kumar may be demoted from the central contracts for October 2021-September 2022 after their poor performance as well.

During a discussion on India News, Saba Karim said: “This [Contract system] does two things from the BCCI’s side. You are promoted as an appreciation if you have done well last year or you are demoted if the selectors feel you have not performed. If we keep these criteria, it’s clear their performance has not been good last year.”

Saba Karim again shared: “The expectations from them have gone down slightly and that is why we are talking about this demotion. But I feel this is also a silver lining for these players. If they are in Grade C, it means the selectors might still think about them in the coming year. It’s not that they have been totally sidelined.”

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“I feel A+ is a very exclusive club” – Saba Karim

However, Ajinkya Rahane, Pujara and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were all out of form in the recently-concluded Indian tour of South Africa whereas Ishant and Saha did not get a single game in the series. Saba Karim also stated that Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul are likely to get the promotion to the A+ grade.

“I feel A+ is a very exclusive club. Here I feel we are missing one player, that is Jadeja. He is a player who plays all three formats, he gives match-winning contributions and he has huge importance. Along with him, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul are also there. But maybe this year only Jadeja might get an entry in A+ and Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul might be in Grade A. Other than that, I feel players like Mohammed Siraj, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Deepak Chahar should be given a promotion,” Saba Karim signed off.

Notably, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah are the three Indian players who placed in the Grade A+ status in the BCCI’s annual contracts as well.