New Delhi: India skipper Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli have retained their place in the highest category as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced its centrally-contracted players list for the 2023-2024 on Wednesday.
The BCCI announced the central contracts for 30 players, distributed in four categories depending on their remuneration. The BCCI has extended the central contracts list by four players compared to last season.
The BCCI did not mention the amounts for the four contract categories. Cricketers normally get Rs 7 crore for the A+ category, Rs 5 crore for the A category, Rs 3 crore for the B category and Rs 1 crore for the C category.
Rohit successfully led the relatively young Indian side to record 17th consecutive Test series win on home soil after it took an unaccessible 3-1 lead in the ongoing series against England. Virat Kohli missed the ongoing five-match Test series against England, citing personal reasons. The duo has been retained in the highest bracket of the BCCI's central contracts list.
Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and prolific all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja also figure in the Grade A plus category.
Rohit and Virat have been India's mainstay in all three formats - T20, ODI, and Tests as they have not missed any of the elite tournaments like the T20 World Cup, 50-over World Cup and the World Test Championship (WTC) since the 2013 Champions Trophy.
Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan are not part of the list of 30 contracted players. The board has mentioned that "Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations".
Iyer, who had played a significant role in India's run to the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup final, lost his Grade B contract despite fulfilling the minimum criteria set by the board in terms of matches played.
Since last October, when the contract period started, Iyer played four Tests, 12 ODIs and two T20Is. Two of those Tests were the first two of the ongoing series against England while the remaining came against South Africa in South Africa, where he struggled for runs and didn't take part in the remainder of the series citing back spasms.
The 29-year-old made himself unavailable for Mumbai's Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Baroda, citing the same reason to the Mumbai Cricket Association. However, on the next day, the head of sports sciences and medicine at the National Cricket Academy, Nitin Patel, informed the selectors that Shreyas Iyer was fit and no fresh injuries were incurred by him recently.
Iyer has now made himself available and is part of Mumbai's Ranji Trophy squad for the semi-final against Tamil Nadu on March 2.
Kishan had a Grade C contract last season. In the current contract period, he played just two ODIs and three T20Is, although he was part of various India squads, including the World Cup squad.
However, in December, while on tour in South Africa, he complained about mental fatigue and was granted leave by the BCCI. However, since then he has not featured in any competitive cricket organised by the BCCI.
On Tuesday, February 27, he made headlines when he turned up to play at the DY Patil T20 Cup, a privately organised tournament in Navi Mumbai and Talegoan.
Apart from these players, the selection committee have made provision that wicket-keeper batter Dhruv Jurel and batter Sarfaraz Khan, having played two Test matches so far, will be inducted into Grade C contract if they participate in the Dharamsala Test of the ongoing series against England. The BCCI also recommended fast bowling contracts for Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa.
The Central Contract list is as follows:
- Grade A+ (4 Athletes)
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja. - Grade A (6 Athletes)
R Ashwin, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya. - Grade B (5 Athletes)
Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal. - Grade C (15 Athletes)
Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Rajat Patidar.
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