Senior superstars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been downgraded to Group B in the latest annual central contract announced by the BCCI, which also abolished the A+ category that carried a retainership fee of Rs 7 crore.
The BCCI on Monday awarded central contracts to 30 men and 21 women cricketers, classified in Group A, B, and C. The cycle for the new central contract is based on performance and the number of games played during the preceding season.
Two-format skipper Shubman Gill, senior pacer Jasprit Bumrah, and premier Test all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja were retained in Group A. The BCCI, however, did not mention the quantum of retainership fees for the three categories.
Previously, Group A was valued at Rs 5 crore, Group B at Rs 3 crore, and Group C at Rs 1 crore. As far as Kohli and Rohit are concerned, their retirement from Tests and T20Is effectively makes them one-format players.
Hence, as per the criteria, they could not be retained in the top-most category. It is understood that A+ was a gradation introduced by the erstwhile Committee of Administrators (COA) at the behest of former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
It was meant for excellence across three formats, and only four players qualified over the years – Kohli, Rohit, Jadeja, and Bumrah. With three of the four retiring from one or two formats, the BCCI did not want just Bumrah to be kept in A+.
The national selection committee is not convinced that Test and ODI skipper Gill is an all-format certainty after being dropped from the T20 World Cup squad.
One question, however, is whether Bumrah will be paid the earlier retainership amount (Rs 7 crore), as he is still an automatic choice across all formats and it is not his fault that the highest category has been done away with.
Mohammed Shami dropped from contracts
The previous cycle had 34 players under contract, but this time the list has been pruned to 30. Veteran pacer Mohammed Shami, keeper-batter Ishan Kishan, seamer Mukesh Kumar, and Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan did not figure in the list.
The reason is that during the last cycle, they did not play a single international game across any format. Shami's exclusion indicates he is no longer in the selectors' plans. Kishan made a comeback in T20Is, but only in the new cycle.
Mukesh is no longer in the radar, and Sarfaraz, though part of the squad in Australia, did not play any matches. Of the 30 players, three are in Grade A, 11 in Grade B, and 16 in Grade C.
Senior player Axar Patel, who regularly plays ODIs and T20Is and is part of the Test squad, has been placed in Group C with one-format players.
Jemimah Rodrigues promoted to Group A
On the women's side, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma, and Smriti Mandhana retained their top billing. India's World Cup star Jemimah Rodrigues got a promotion from Group B to A after her semi-final performance against Australia.
Sneh Rana has also been promoted to Group B, alongside Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, and Renuka Singh Thakur. Thirteen cricketers are in Group C.
Currently, the women's central contract retainership fees are Rs 50 lakh, Rs 30 lakh, and Rs 10 lakh for Groups A, B, and C, respectively.
