The annual contracts of India’s men’s cricketers has been announced by the BCCI with a total of 28 players on the retainer list for the period from October, 2020 to September, 2021.
The highest bracket is of Rs 7 crore which is the salary that Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah will earn in the period, apart from their match fee.
There are a total of four categories with the 'A+' category earning Rs 7 crore for the year. The 10 players in the 'A' category will get Rs 5 crore each while five players in category 'B' will get Rs 3 crore each.
The 10 cricketers in the 'C' category will get Rs 1 crore each.
Full List of BCCI’s Men’s Contracted Players
Grade A+: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.
Grade A: R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, K.L. Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya.
Grade B: Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur, Mayank Agarwal.
Grade C: Kuldeep Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammad Siraj.
Who Got Upgraded
Hardik Pandya has made the biggest jump after a successful season. The all-rounder has been moved to Grade B from his earlier Grade A salary and will now make Rs 5 crore for this current cricket season.
Shardul Thakur too has moved up one grade from C to B and will now be earning Rs 3 crore as part of his retainer.
Newly Contracted
Among the 28 players to be rewarded for their performances with their first BCCI contract are Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj and Axar Patel.
All three have been named in Grade C and will be earning Rs 1 crore.
Who Moved Down
Out of favour chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav has seen a drop from Grade A to C while his former spin partner Yazvendra Chahal has dropped from Grade B to C. Both will be earning Rs 1 crore this cricket season.
Despite his match-winning outing in the recently concluded England series, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has seen his name drop from Grade A to Grade B. Kumar also struggled with injuries since IPL 2020 when he got hurt and had to pull out of the tournament. He missed the Australia tour and made a comeback against England at home. He will be earning Rs 3 crore.
Just two players have been dropped entirely from BCCI’s annual contract list. Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav who were both Grade C players last season, have not found a spot in the new list this time.
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