BCCI Annual Player Contracts Announced: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma Bag Grade A+ Bracket; Shocker for MS Dhoni and Mohammed Shami
Firstly, the former India captain MS Dhoni wasn’t included in the newly constituted Grade A+ category. Secondly, fast-bowler Mohammed Shami, who was dragged into an unprecedented controversy earlier today.
The Committee of Administrators (CoA), appointed by the Supreme Court of India, announced the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Annual Player Contracts on March 7, 2018. The annual contracts were announced for the Indian Men and Indian Women Cricket Team along with the fees for Domestic Cricket players. The new pay structure saw addition of two new categories in the system, i.e. (i) Grade A+ for Senior Men team; (ii) Grade C for Indian Senior Women team.
The salary was hiked by over 200 percent in every category. The period of these contracts will be from October 2017 to September 2018. We, at LatestLy, bring to you the full pay structure of Indian Senior Men Team:
Newly Formed Grades by BCCI for Indian Senior Men Team:
| Grade | A+ | A | B | C |
| Amount | Rs. 7 Crore | Rs. 5 Crore | Rs. 3 Crore | Rs. 1 Crore |
The newly formed Grade A+ category saw senior players Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Shikhar Dhawan in the list. Fast bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah were also awarded A+ contracts for their stupendous performances recently.
| Grade | Amount | Players |
| Grade A+ | Rs. 7 Crore | Virat Kohli |
| Rohit Sharma | ||
| Shikhar Dhawan | ||
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar | ||
| Jasprit Bumrah |
R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, and Wridhhiman Saha have been awarded Grade A Contract. The exclusion of MS Dhoni from Grade A+ was quite a surprise.
| Grade | Amount | Players |
| Grade A | Rs. 5 Crore | Ravichandran Ashwin |
| Ravindra Jadeja | ||
| Murali Vijay | ||
| Cheteshwar Pujara | ||
| Ajinkya Rahane | ||
| MS Dhoni | ||
| Wridhhiman Saha |
Dinesh Karthik, who is a stand-in wicket-keeping option for the Indian team for quite some time now was awarded Grade B contract. India’s newest star cricket player Hardik Pandya was also awarded Grade B contract.
| Grade | Amount | Players |
| Grade B | Rs. 3 Crore | KL Rahul |
| Umesh Yadav | ||
| Kuldeep Yadav | ||
| Yuzvendra Chahal | ||
| Hardik Pandya | ||
| Ishant Sharma | ||
| Dinesh Karthik |
Suresh Raina, who made a comeback of sorts in the Indian team recently was awarded Grade C contract. Out-of-favour players Karun Nair and Jayant Yadav were surprise inclusions in the Grade C category.
| Grade | Amount | Players |
| Grade C | Rs. 1 Crore | Kedar Jadhav |
| Manish Pandey | ||
| Axar Patel | ||
| Karun Nair | ||
| Suresh Raina | ||
| Parthiv Patel | ||
| Jayant Yadav |
There were a couple of takeaways from the recently announced BCCI Annual Player Contracts. Firstly, the former India captain MS Dhoni wasn’t included in the newly constituted Grade A+ category. Secondly, fast-bowler Mohammed Shami, who was dragged into an unprecedented controversy by his wife, Hasin Jahan, was found nowhere in the 26-player list. The Indian cricket team is currently participating in the tri-nation T20 series, Nidahas Trophy 2018, in Sri Lanka.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 07, 2018 08:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).