India’s cricket board scraps elite A+ contracts, placing retired stars Kohli and Rohit in Grade B as Gill, Bumrah and Jadeja lead the new top tier
INDIA’S cricket board has restructured its central contract system, resulting in a downgrade for retired batting icons Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced it has scrapped the elite A+ category, making Grade A the new top tier.
Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja are the three players awarded the top Grade A contracts.
Kohli and Sharma, who have retired from Test and T20 internationals, have been placed in Grade B.
The BCCI did not disclose the revised pay for each category in its latest announcement.
Last year, the top-tier A+ contracts carried an annual retainer of approximately $772,000.
A total of 30 senior men’s cricketers were awarded contracts across the three tiers, with no new faces added to the list.
The Grade B list also includes Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer.
Grade C contracts were awarded to 16 players, including Axar Patel, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh and Ruturaj Gaikwad.
