The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has released the list of annual central contracts for the 2024-25 season, reflecting a number of significant changes in player categories, promotion of young stars, and dropping of some regulars. The retainer format remains in four categories: A+, A, B, and C, although the BCCI hasn't formally revealed salary figures. According to reports, Grade A+ players take home INR 7 crore, Grade A INR 5 crore, Grade B INR 3 crore, and Grade C INR 1 crore.
Top Tier (A+): No Change Except Ashwin's Exit
The top Grade A+ remains to boast India's biggest stars: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja. The only difference in this category is R Ashwin's exclusion, as he had retired from international cricket towards the fag end of last year.
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Interestingly enough, Rohit, Kohli, and Jadeja have managed to hold on to their elite positions even after retiring from T20Is following India's winning T20 World Cup 2024 campaign.
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Grade A: Pant Returns
A notable upgrade sees Rishabh Pant promoted back to Grade A, marking a significant step in his comeback story. After being demoted last season due to a long injury layoff from his 2022 car accident, Pant has bounced back by featuring in all formats in the past year — including ten Tests, one ODI, and ten T20Is.
Grade A has also got top performers such as KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, Shubman Gill, and Mohammed Shami.
Grade B: Shreyas Iyer And Kuldeep Lead The Line
Shreyas Iyer, though deprived of a higher grade, ends up in Grade B, and he is accompanied by Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and present T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav.
Grade C: New Faces Join In
The Grade C list welcomes a new set of promising new entrants in the form of Nitish Kumar Reddy, Dhruv Jurel, Abhishek Sharma, Sarfaraz Khan, Akash Deep, Varun Chakravarthy, and Harshit Rana – all receiving their first central contracts.
The exclusions include Shardul Thakur, KS Bharat, Avesh Khan, and Jitesh Sharma, who had been included in Grade C in the previous cycle.