BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Wednesday said that India’s centrally contracted players will have to play in the domestic red ball tournaments mandatorily and the board will not tolerate any excuses as well. He also added that the players’ participation in these domestic tournaments will happen under the guidance from the national cricket academy.

“They have been informed on phone already and I’m going to write letters as well that if your chairman of selectors, your coach and your captain are asking for it then you will have to play red-ball cricket,” Shah said as quoted by PTI. “Whatever advice we get from the NCA — say suppose somebody’s body is not able to handle both white-ball and red-ball cricket — so we do not want to impose anything in that regard. (It applies to) whoever is fit and young — we are not going to tolerate any other tantrums. This message is for all centrally contracted players.”

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“Everyone will have to play, otherwise, the chairman of the selection committee has given me his suggestions and I am going to give him a free hand to let him take his own calls freely,” he further added.

He also opined on Virat Kohli, who has withdrawn from the ongoing series against England due to personal reasons. However, the BCCI secretary did not give any details if Kohli would be available for the T20 World Cup.

“If somebody is asking for a personal leave in 15 years then it is his right to ask for it. Virat is not that kind of a player that he would ask for a leave without any reason. We must back and trust our players,” Jay Shah said while talking about Virat Kohli, “We will talk about Virat later.”