BCCI Central Contracts 2024-25: Full List Of Players Promoted, Demoted And Axed | N18V | News18
The ongoing IPL has kept Indian fans glued to their TV sets. But here's what must not go unnoticed. The BCCI has announced Team India Central contracts for 20/24/25 season. Now. Why this is important is because this is the very annual agreement between BCCI and the Indian cricketers that categorizes players into different grades based on their performances, their consistency and contract contribution to the national team. And for any player to enter the central contract list, they need to play either three Tests or 8 ODIs or T20 Internationals during a particular calendar year to be considered for the next season. In case you're wondering how much money goes into whose pocket, the highest grade is a plus and has a retainship fee of ₹7,00,00,000, followed by a grade where a player gets ₹5,00,00,000. Cricketers in grade B&C are paid 3,00,00,000 and ₹1,00,00,000 respectively. Now let's get to everything you need to know about the upcoming season. Visa Week The men's central contract The category A+, which is the top tier of the contracts, remains unchanged for the upcoming season except R Ashwin, who retired from international cricket not too long ago. Out of 34 players on the list, only four have made it to Grade A+ and they are Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jaspreet Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja. Why I'm highlighting this is because rumours had it that not all stakeholders were on the same page over retention of all senior players in this top category, especially now that Kohli, Rohit and Jadeja have all retired from T20 internationals and have become two format players. But clearly, the dynamic 4 have nothing to worry about for the whole of the next season. Further, Rishabh Pant has been promoted from Grade B to Grade A, which also includes Muhammad Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya and Muhammad Shami. Interestingly, Rishabh Pant had previously been in Grade A for the 20/22/23 season as well but was moved down to Grade B after not playing for over a year following the horrific accident he met with in December 2020. 2 Moving on After being dropped last season for allegedly neglecting domestic cricket in lieu of IPL, middle order batter Shreya Sahir has been awarded a Grade BBCCI central contract. Even wicket keeper batter Ishan Kishan, who faced a similar exclusion, has made a comeback, securing a Grade C contract. Speaking of great see, the category has expanded significantly, now encompassing 19 players with eight new faces, namely Dhruv Jurail, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Harshit Rana, Abhishek Sharma and Aakash Deepa. Not to forget Varun Chakravarti who has risen through the ranks in the past year. Apart from his T20 International series against Bangladesh last year, he also made his ODI debut in Champions Trophy where he ended up picking 9 wickets. The only few to lose out on a contract are Shardul Thakur, KS Bharat, Avesh Khan and Jitesh Sharma who were all in the Great C list last year. These four have unfortunately been at the losing end of the BCCI's announcement.