New Delhi: It was a debate started by the letter written by former member of the CoA Ramachandra Guha and echoing a similar sentiment, former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja has questioned the logic of giving a Grade A contract to players not playing Test cricket. Raja highlighted the importance of playing the longest format of the game and argued against the logic of giving a Grade A contract to players like MS Dhoni and Shahid Afridi when they had retired from Test cricket.
Raja was quoted in the media to be saying, "You have to acknowledge and respect the status of Test match cricket and it has to come from the cricket boards, in Asia specifically."
He further added, “For example, MS Dhoni retired from Test cricket yet got the A-grade contract from the BCCI, Shahid Afridi retired from Test cricket yet got the A-grade contract from PCB. It is under a lot of stress in Asia but if we have a properly planned Test match championship, that’s the way out of this, otherwise we will be struggling to put aside as much money as is available for the T20 leagues.”
Earlier Guha wrote a scathing letter to the chairman of CoA in which he stated, “Unfortunately, the superstar syndrome has distorted the system of Indian team contracts. As you will recall, I had pointed out that awarding MS Dhoni an ‘A’ contract when he had explicitly ruled himself out from all Test matches was indefensible on cricketing grounds, and sends absolutely the wrong message.”
