BCCI Central Contracts 2023: Suryakumar, Gill to get promotions, Rahane likely to lose his contract: Consistent stellar performances for the Indian team in the limited overs format have fetched a promotion for Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill in the latest central contracts of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Both players are likely to be elevated to at least grade B. Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya will also be rewarded to a higher pay band in the BCCI.
The Indian cricket board is expected to announce the renewed list of centrally contracted players on December 21.
As per the reports, both Gill and Suryakumar Yadav, who have been sensational in white ball cricket, would jump to grade B from C. Hardik Pandya, who is being tipped as the next Men’s T20I captain for India, will take a leap to grade A.
“Surya was in Group C but his performance in the last one year warrants a promotion to grade B at least, if not A. He is currently world No. 1 in T20I ICC rankings and is a serious contender in ODI team also,” news agency PTI quoted a source as saying.
Meanwhile, a few veterans of the game are probable to get an axe from the BCCI central contracts. The likes of Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma, who saw their prime under MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli’s captaincy, are expected to be dropped from the list. Apart from Rahane and Ishant Sharma, senior glovesman Wriddhiman Saha is also reported to go missing from the list.
Notably, Hardik Pandya was demoted to the C category last year as he missed a lot of international cricket owing to a back injury. However, he was soon brought back to B grade following his return to the Indian side following IPL 2022.
The reports claimed that Ishan Kishan, who scored the fastest double-century against Bangladesh in the 3rd ODI, may get entry to the list.
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The BCCI divides its centrally contracted players into four categories. The A+ category, which is the highest, fetches INR 7 Crore annually, A category players get INR 5 Crore, B category receives INR 3 Crore while players in the C category get INR 1 Crore annually.
As of now, only three players feature in the A+ category – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah. If the reports are to be believed, KL Rahul is likely to enter this elite list.
Down below are the details of Indian players in different categories in BCCI’s central contract list:
- A+ Grade (Rs 7 crore): Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma.
- A Grade (Rs 5 crore): Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami.
- B Grade (Rs 3 crore): Cheteshwar Pujara, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya
- C Grade (Rs 1 crore): Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Shubman Gill, Hanuma Vihari, Yuzvendra Chahal, Suryakumar Yadav and Mayank Agarwal.
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