Ravindra Jadeja received a huge hike of Rs 2 crore in his salary and will now draw the same amount of money that India captain, Rohit Sharma, earns. Jadeja is enjoying a dream run since his comeback to competitive cricket and he has been aptly rewarded by the BCCI. Apart from Jadeja and Rohit, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah are in the Grade A+ category.
The players in the Grade A+ category have a salary of Rs 7 crore. Those in Grade A earn Rs 5 crore while players in Grade B have a salary of Rs 3 crore. Those in Grade C will have a salary of Rs 1 crore.
There were a few players who have been released from the BCCI’s central contract list while a few have been promoted keeping in mind their performances. Here, we compare 2023’s central contracts to last year’s list and have a look at complete changes.
Promoted
Ravindra Jadeja is among the players who got the biggest hike in his career. The star player had a salary of Rs 5 crore as a Grade A player. Now he will earn Rs 7 crore. Axar Patel and Shubman Gill also got a raise of Rs 2 crore each. While Axar moved from Group B to Group A, Gill has moved from Group C to Group B. Hardik Pandya also made huge gains as he was promoted to Grade A from Grade C.
Players who are new in the central contracts list
As many as five players have been handed a central contract for the first time. The list includes Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan and Deepak Hooda. Sanju has been in and out of the side since his comeback in 2019 while the rest of the players made their India debut in 2021-22.
Even though he is out of form, Kishan is a member of all three teams. He is waiting for his debut in Test cricket. The wicketkeeper-batsman is likely to travel to England for the World Test Championship final as Bharat’s backup.
Players who have been released from their central contracts
Former India Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma were the biggest names to be excluded. They were dropped from the Test team early in 2022 and have been out since then. Another player dropped from the list is Mayank Agarwal, who lost his opening spot in 2021.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who became a T20 specialist last year, has been dropped along with Deepak Chahar and Hanuma Vihari. Vihari has been dropped without being given regular chances and he can make his return on the basis of his form in domestic cricket.
