India’s chief coach Ravi Shastri, on Friday, said that Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara should remain in the top bracket when the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Committee of Administrators (CoA) thrash out the revised central contracts based on new remuneration structure.
Pujara is currently in the Grade A of Central Contracts alongside Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay. During a panel discussion on journalist Rajdeep Sardesai’s new book ‘Democracy’s XI’, Shastri said: “It is very important that someone like Cheteshwar Pujara is kept in the top bracket of central contract,” PTI was quoted as saying.
Shastri, along with Kohli and Dhoni, met CoA chief Vinod Rai to discuss the revised compensation package and Future Tours & Programme (FTP) calendar. There have been discussions in BCCI circles that players will be bracketed as per who plays the maximum number of international matches across formats in a particular calendar year.
Pujara, one of the pillars of the Indian Test set-up, does not play any other format and has not been getting IPL contracts. Shastri also spoke the former and the current captains being contrasting personalities. “I have never seen Dhoni lose his cool. If he has, it must have been for 10 seconds. Kohli is still a work in progress, but he will certainly mature.
I hear a lot of stories about their relationship but all those are not true. I have seen how much mutual respect the two have for each other,” Shastri said.
