Dharamsala, Mar 9: The future of out of favour cricketers Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan has been debated loudly after BCCI omitting them from the central contract list, but India head coach Rahul Dravid on Saturday refused to close the door on them.
Kishan has not played any cricket after skipping the two-Test series against South Africa but he has been preparing for IPL along with Mumbai Indians' teammate Hardik Pandya at a private centre in Baroda.
Despite BCCI's stern directive to play domestic matches, Shreyas opted out of Mumbai's Ranji Trophy quarterfinal citing back spasms.
But he played in the semifinal against Tamil Nadu and is scheduled to appear in the final against Vidarbha from Sunday.
"They are always in the mix. Nobody is out of picture. Everyone who's playing domestic cricket is in the mix. It's just a question of, hopefully, them getting back and fit, playing cricket, and forcing the selectors to pick them again."
However Dravid steered cleared when the sensitive issue of central contract cropped up.
"I don't decide contracts, right? Contracts are decided by the selectors and the board. I don't even know what is the criteria (for inclusion). Me and Rohit select the (playing) 11. We have never discussed whether somebody has a contract or not. I don't even know what the list of the contracted players is," said Dravid in the post-match press-conference.
After India bagged the five-match series against England 4-1, BCCI secretary Jay Shah announced a 'Test Cricket Incentive Scheme' for players appearing in more red-ball cricket for the country.
Dravid hoped that the players would look at it as a reward for their hard work rather than another source to earn money.
"I really hope money is not going to be the incentive to play Test cricket. It's just the hard work and how tough Test cricket can be is being recognised.
"So, I wouldn't see it as an incentive to make people play Test cricket, I hope not. But it is nice that the BCCI is recognizing it. I think it is a reward, not an incentive," said the former Indian skipper.
He then proceeded to cite the example of veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin to validate his point.
"It takes a special person to do what Ashwin has done (rejoining the team after a personal emergency), to play 100 Tests, you go through a lot. We don't celebrate 100 T20Is in the same way, do we?
"It's only when you get here that you realise that sometimes it's quite tough, but it is extremely satisfying (to play Tests). If they are well supported and well documented, I am sure there will be a lot of people still wanting to play Test cricket," said Dravid.
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Mumbai, Jul 26 (PTI): Enforcement Directorate searches against the companies of Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani in Mumbai continued for the third day on Saturday with the agency recovering a number of documents and computer peripherals from multiple locations, official sources said.
The raids were launched on July 24 by the federal probe agency as part of an alleged Rs 3,000 crore worth bank loan fraud-linked money laundering case apart from multiple other allegations of financial irregularities with crores of rupees by certain companies.
The searches, being conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), are continuing at some locations out of the more than 35 premises that were covered in Mumbai since Thursday, the sources said.
These premises belong to 50 companies and 25 people including a number of executives of the Anil Ambani Group companies.
ED sources had said the investigation primarily pertains to allegations of illegal loan diversion of around Rs 3,000 crore, given by the Yes Bank to the group companies of Ambani between 2017-2019.
Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure, two companies of the group, had on Thursday informed the stock exchanges saying while they acknowledge the action, the raids had "absolutely no impact" on their business operations, financial performance, shareholders, employees, or any other stakeholders.
"The media reports appear to pertain to allegations concerning transactions of Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) or Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) which are over 10 years old," the companies had said.
The ED, the sources had said, has found that just before the loan was granted, Yes Bank promoters "received" money in their concerns.
The agency is investigating this nexus of "bribe" and the loan.
The sources said the ED is also probing allegations of "gross violations" in Yes Bank loan approvals to these companies including charges like back-dated credit approval memorandums, investments proposed without any due diligence/credit analysis in violation of banks credit policy.
The loans are alleged to have been "diverted" to many group companies and "shell" (bogus) companies by the entities involved.
The agency is also looking at some instances of loans given to entities with weak financials, lack of proper documentation of loans and due diligence, borrowers having common addresses and common directors in their companies etc., the sources said.
The money laundering case stems from at least two CBI FIRs and reports shared by the National Housing Bank, SEBI, National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) and Bank of Baroda with the ED, they said.
These reports indicate, the sources said, that there was a "well-planned and thought after scheme" to divert or siphon off public money by cheating banks, shareholders, investors and other public institutions.
The Union government had informed the Parliament recently that the State Bank of India has classified RCOM along with Ambani as 'fraud' and was also in the process of lodging a complaint with the CBI.
A bank loan "fraud" of more than Rs 1,050 crore between RCOM and Canara Bank is also under the scanner of the ED apart from some "undisclosed" foreign bank accounts and assets, the sources said.
Reliance Mutual fund is also stated to have invested Rs 2,850 crore in AT-1 bonds and a "quid pro quo" is suspected here by the agency.
Additional Tier 1 (AT-1) are perpetual bonds issued by banks to increase their capital base and they are riskier than traditional bonds having higher interest rates. An alleged loan fund diversion of about Rs 10,000 crore involving Reliance Infrastructure too is under the scanner of the agency.
A Sebi report on RHFL is also part of the ED probe.
The companies also said in their filings before the stock exchanges that Anil Ambani was not on the Board of either Reliance Power or Reliance Infrastructure and that they had no "business or financial linkage" to RCOM or RHFL.
Any action taken against RCOM or RHFL, the companies said, has no bearing or impact on the governance, management, or operations of either Reliance Power or Reliance Infrastructure.