BCCI doubles annual contract fee for cricketers

Ravindra Jadeja has been rewarded for his all-round show in the ongoing home season as BCCI elevated him to Grade A in the annual contracts for the 2017-18 season announced on Wednesday. Along with Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay also jumped to the top category.

The Committee of Administrators (COA) met earlier in the day to decide on the annual player contracts for men cricketers for the period ending 30 September 2017.

The annual retainer amounts have been doubled for all the categories and Grade A players will be paid Rs 2 Crore per annum, Grade B will be paid Rs 1 Crore per annum and Grade C will be paid Rs 50 lakh per annum, which is double the amounts paid in the earlier years.

The match fee enhancement for men cricketers will be effective from October 1st 2016 onwards and Rs 15 lakh per Test, Rs 6 lakh per ODI and Rs 3 lakh for T20 international will be paid.

The seven cricketers in the top bracket are Dhoni, Kohli, Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jadeja and Vijay.

While seniors like Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra have found place in Grade B and C respectively, the biggest name missing is Suresh Raina, who till recently was a permanent member of the limited overs fixtures. Young Rishabh Pant is a part of Grade C contract.

Grade A: Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, M Vijay

Grade B: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuvraj Singh

Grade C: Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, Ashish Nehra, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur, Rishabh Pant