In the latest annual central contracts released by the BCCI, which also eliminated the current A+ category with a retainer price of Rs 7 crore, senior superstars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were predictably demoted to group B.
30 men’s and 21 women’s cricketers in groups A, B, and C were given central contracts by the BCCI on Monday. Performance and the number of games played in the previous season determine the cycle for a new central contract.
Two-format captain Shubman Gill, premier Test all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, were all retained in group A.
The amount of retainer fees for the three categories was not specified by the BCCI, though. Group A was valued at Rs 5 crore, Group B at Rs 3 crore, and Group C at Rs 1 crore every year prior to the removal of A+.
According to the criterion, Kohli and Rohit could not have been kept in the top division because of their retirement from Test and T20I cricket, which basically renders them one-format players.
It is known that the former Committee of Administrators (COA) instituted the A+ grade at the request of former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Only four individuals have qualified in that category over the years: Rohit, Jadeja, Bumrah, and Kohli. It was intended for brilliance in three different formats.
However, the national selection committee isn’t sure that Test and ODI captain Gill is an all-format certainty after being left out of the T20 World Cup squad, thus the BCCI didn’t want simply Bumrah to be kept in A+ when three of the four have retired from one or two forms.
However, as Bumrah is still selected automatically for all formats and it is not his fault that the top category has been eliminated, it will be interesting to see if he receives the previous retainership fee of Rs 7 crore.
The list has been reduced to 30 players from the 34 who received contracts in the previous cycle. The list did not include Mumbai batsman Sarfaraz Khan, keeper-batter Ishan Kishan, seamer Mukesh Kumar, or veteran bowler Mohammed Shami. The reason is that they didn’t participate in any international games in any format during the aforementioned era.
Shami is no longer in the selectors’ plans, as evidenced by his exclusion. In T20Is, Kishan made a stunning return, but only during the most recent cycle. Since he didn’t play last season, Mukesh is no longer considered. The same is true for Sarfaraz, who was included in the team in Australia but did not participate in any matches. When it came to contract retention, he had no matches to show.
Only three of the thirty names received an A, eleven received a B, and sixteen received a C. The other unexpected development, albeit a little one, is that senior player Axar Patel, who frequently plays ODI and T20I and is a member of the Test squad, was demoted to group C with players who only play one format.
India’s World Cup star Jemimah Rodrigues was promoted from group B to A following her outstanding performance against Australia in the semi-finals, but captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, and Deepti Sharma continued to hold the top spots in the women’s list.
Along with Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, and Renuka Singh Thakur, Sneh Rana has also been promoted and is currently in group B. Group C consisted of 13 cricketers. The current retainership fees for women under central contracts are Rs 50 lakh, Rs 30 lakh, and Rs 10 lakh, respectively.
