The BCCI declared the yearly players’ agreement on Thursday night, in which the cricketing body cut down the best section of Grade ‘An or more’s to only three people – captain Virat Kohli, vice-captain Rohit Sharma, and seamer Jasprit Bumrah. A year ago, when the class was first reported by the Supreme Court delegated Committee of Administrators (CoA), there were five players in the best section. Lets see who earns maximum salary in indian cricket team
Here is a glance at what all has changed in the players’ agreement from a year ago.
Grade A Plus (Rs 7 crore)
Previous year contract: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
New contract: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
In 2018, the Supreme Court-named CoA presented another classification of GradeA+ in BCCI’s yearly contract list. According to BCCI, the thought was to show that “the position of Indian Cricketer should be perceived with the best fee structure”
The previous year, five players made it into the classification of A+ Kohli, Sharma, Bumrah, Shikhar Dhawan, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. After a year, the BCCI has expelled Kumar and Dhawan from the best section.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has seen a year filled with injuries and has been far from the red-ball cricket. He was excluded from the matches of four Test against Australia in December. Then again, Dhawan as well has turned out to be restricted to shorter format only, after poor form in Tests in South Africa and England a year ago. He was excluded in the Test squad for Australia, and at age of 33, arrival to the longest format seems impossible.
Grade A (Rs 5 crore)
Previous year contract: MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Murali Vijay
New contract: MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant
BCCI has given a Grade ‘A’ agreement to 11 players this time, four more than the earlier year. Former captain MS Dhoni, and spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have expectedly held their spot, alongside Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. It is expected that Pujara will get the best section after the Test series against Australia in which he completed as the best scorer with 521 runs in 7 innings at an average of 74.43. Rahane, then again, has been far from the limited-overs squad since he failed to perform in South Africa a year ago and it is highly unlikely to make it to upcoming World Cup squad either.
Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar dropped to Grade A, while Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, and Kuldeep Yadav, who were the important part of India’s bowling unit a year ago, have been upgraded from ‘B’ to ‘A’ classification. India has not given any agreement to Murali Vijay, while Wriddhiman Saha, who was mostly away from the team last year because of the back injury, has dropped down to ‘C’ classification.
In Saha’s nonappearance, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant has grabbed the chance and has turned out to be a worthy successor to MS Dhoni behind the stumps. In his first Test series, he scored a ton in England and then hit another ton in Australia. He was going to be the successor of MS Dhoni and that’s why he got Grade A contract this year.
Grade B (Rs 3 crore)
Previous year contract: KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Mohammed Shami
New Contract: KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya
The huge astonishment in the class is the maintenance of Yuzvendra Chahal. The leg-spinner has seen a consistent rise in form since last year in the limited overs cricket and has displaced Jadeja and Ashwin as the favored spinning choice alongside Kuldeep. In 17 ODIs last year, Chahal has taken 28 wickets at an average of 26.89.
Grade C (Rs 1 crore)
Previous contract: Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav
New Contract: Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu, Hanuma Vihari, Khaleel Ahmed, Wriddhiman Saha
There are many newcomers in the Grade ‘C’ classification, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Parthiv Patel, and Jayant Yadav have been dropped; Ambati Rayudu, Hanuma Vihari, and Khaleel Ahmed have joined the category. Rayudu is probably going to be India’s no. 4 in the World Cup squad this year, while Vihari, who scored a fifty on Test debut in England, is probably going to keep a place in India’s squad in red-ball cricket this year.
