Every year the BCCI awards central contracts to those Indian players who represent India in International matches. Central contracts are divided into four categories- Grade A+, Grade A, Grade B, and Grade C. Remuneration for the contracted players vary according to the grade allotted to them.
Grade A+ players are paid a hefty sum of Rs 7 crores annually for rendering their services. Grade A players are paid an ample Rupees 5 crore as remuneration. On the other hand, Grade B and Grade C cricketers are compensated with Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore, respectively. Recently the BCCI has revealed the complete list of players contracted for 2022-2023.
Here are the contracted players for 2022-2023:
Grade A+
The Run Machine- Virat Kohli, India’s new full-time skipper in all formats- Rohit Sharma and the best bowler for India in every format of cricket- Jasprit Bumrah, comprises the entire list of players awarded with a grade A+ central contract for the upcoming year. No changes have been made to the Grade A+ category in this year’s contracts.
Grade A
Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, KL Rahul, Mohammad Shami and Rishabh Pant are the only five players to retain their Grade A contracts. This year the BCCI has removed five cricketers from this particular category. Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara are snubbed due to their dismal batting display in the recently concluded test series. Hardik Pandya is demoted directly from Grade A to Grade C due to his questionable fitness. Ishant Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are also removed from this category this year.
Grade B
Agar Patel, Mohammad Siraj and Shreyas Iyer have bagged a Grade B central contract for the first time. Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma are the ones who got demoted from Grade A to Grade B. Meanwhile, Shardul Thakur is the only one to retain his Grade B contract among Wriddhiman Shah, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mayank Agarwal.
Grade C
Suryakumar Yadav, the new batting sensation, has earned a central contract for the first time. Other Grade C players include- Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Aggarwal, Wriddhiman Shah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, Shubham Gill, Deepak Chahar, Washington Sundar, Hanuma Vihari and Hardik Pandya.
Players who missed out:
Even after performing exceptionally well against Sri Lanka, Venkatesh Iyer is not rewarded with a central contract. Ishan Kishan, the most expensive player in this year’s IPL auction, also missed out on an annual central contract. The wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, too, has failed to grab any central contract.
BCCI has only named 27 cricketers in the central contract for 2022-2023 instead of 28 players for 2021-2022. Do you think Venkatesh Iyer & Ishan Kishan should have been awarded a contract?