Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah are the four players who have been retained in Grade A+ in the latest Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) contract list. Rohit, Kohli and Jadeja have retired from T20Is and their inclusion in the top tier has raised questions.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the annual player contract list for 2024-25, with 34 players making the cut in the four-category chart. The major talking point of the retainership was the return of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer in Grade C and B, respectively, while Rishabh Pant’s promotion to Grade A is another highlight.
Indian stalwarts Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja are the only four players retained in A+ Grade, the top category in the retainership. All these players were in the top category last year, too.
Notably, the inclusion of Kohli, Rohit and Jadeja in the Grade A+ category has raised eyebrows, considering they play only two formats and have retired from the T20Is. A BCCI official has issued clarity on the reason behind keeping the trio in the highest-paid category.
The official stated that the duration of the contracts are from 1st October 2024 to 30th September 2025 and that the assessment period for the same was from 1st October 2023 to 30th September 2024. “The period of fresh central contract is from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025 but the assessment year is October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024 – Kohli, Rohit & Jadeja played the T20 World Cup final in June, 2024 and hence at that time, they were all-format regulars. Going by that technicality, they are supposed to be in A+ category,” the official said.
Among the other major points was Rishabh Pant’s promotion to Grade A. The promotion highlights Pant’s credentials as a future leadership option and an all-format player for the Indian team. Notably, the Indian Board has excluded the fast-bowling contracts it had in place for five players last season.
BCCI had included Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa in the new fast-bowling contracts announced last year. While Akash is in Grade C this year, all the other four players don’t have a contract now, which raises the question of why the BCCI seemingly dropped the plan to develop the next-generation fast bowlers by offering them contracts.
Complete breakdown of central contracts:
A+ Grade: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja
A Grade: Md. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Md. Shami, Rishabh Pant
B Grade: Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer
C Grade: Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Akash Deep, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana
