MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has revealed its updated central contracts list of men’s and women’s cricketers representing the national team for the period of October 2018-September 2019.
The new grade divides and salaries of the contracts was introduced in March 2018. Amongst the men’s cricketers, there are four categories – A+ (Rs 70 million), A (Rs 50 million), B (Rs 30 million) and C (Rs 10 million). For the women, it’s a straight A (Rs 5 million), B (Rs 3 million) and C (Rs 1 million).
However, there are wholesale changes in the names mentioned in the men’s categories this year.
Unlike five cricketers in the A+ category last year, this number has come down to three namely captain Virat Kohli, ODI and T20I vice-captain Rohit Sharma and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah. The demoted ones are opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan and pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who will feature in the A category.
Unlike reports in December 2018 that had suggested Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara’s promotion to the A+ category following a brilliant tour of Australia recently, he has been retained in the A one alongside the likes of former captain MS Dhoni, Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
This A category has 11 players as compared to seven last year, with the likes of Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Kuldeep Yadav and wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant rewarded with promotions.
However, the likes of Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel and Murali Vijay, who have been in the Indian cricket circuit for more than a decade now, have been dropped from the retainers list completely by the BCCI.
Amongst the women, the biggest jump has been of leg-spinner Poonam Yadav, winning a Rs 5 million contract alongside the likes of veterans such as ODI captain Mithali Raj and T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur. The world’s no.1 batswoman, Smriti Mandhana continues to be in the category as well.
Jemimah Rodrigues, the Mumbai-based 19-year-old all-rounder, has also been rewarded from C to a B grade contract after just a year in the national team due to impressive performances.
