Cricket stalwarts Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have taken a significant hit in the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) latest central contracts, as both have been moved down the grading ladder.
The new list features 30 players divided into three categories after the board reportedly scrapped the top-tier Grade A+ bracket that existed in the previous cycle.
Kohli and Rohit, who were earlier part of the elite Grade A+ category, have now been placed in Grade B. The shift is expected to affect their annual retainership earnings. Under the earlier contract structure, players in Grade A+ were paid Rs 7 crore per year, while those in Grade B received Rs 3 crore. Although the BCCI is yet to officially confirm the revised retainership figures for the new cycle, the downgrade has effectively meant a pay cut of several crores for the two senior players.
The primary reason behind their demotion appears to be their reduced participation across formats. Both Kohli and Rohit have retired from T20 Internationals and Test cricket and are now available only for One Day Internationals. The board’s contract policy places importance on multi-format participation, which has resulted in their placement in a lower grade. India’s T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav has also been included in Grade B as he, too, largely represents the country in a single format.
In the new central contracts, Grade A comprises Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja. Grade B features several prominent names, including Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer.
Grade C includes Axar Patel, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Sai Sudharsan, Ravi Bishnoi and Ruturaj Gaikwad.
