BCCI refurbishes Player Contracts; Kohli, Dhawan among the five players to get a substantial pay hike

Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri have always been vocal about their demands and one of them is an increase in the salaries paid to Indian cricketers.

Today, the Committee of Administrators, along with BCCI, have responded to the demands and have declared a drastic increase in the annual contracts of members of the Indian Cricket Team.

In an official mail sent out, the CoA announced their plans for the increase along with a new category — the A+. Players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah belong to this new A+ category and will now earn an exemplary ₹7 crore a year.

Former Indian skipper M.S. Dhoni, Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, and spin duo R Ashwin and R Jadeja have all been demoted from the top-paid group from last March and have been placed in the second grade of players.

The annual contracts are from October 2017 to September 2018.

Here’s a quick glimpse of regrouped players

A+ Grade – ₹7 Crore a Year

Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah

A Grade – ₹5 Crore a Year

Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, Wridhhiman Saha

B Grade – ₹3 Crore a Year

KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Dinesh Karthik

C Grade – ₹1 Crore a Year

Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav

Among the Indian Women’s Cricket team, Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana have managed to stay in the top category, under which the annual contract will fetch them ₹50 lakhs.

The official BCCI statement read,

The CoA recognises that the actual income of the BCCI fluctuates on an annual basis depending on the number of home matches Team India (Senior Men) plays. Hence, to insulate the player compensation, the CoA has sanctioned the creation of a ‘Players Revenue/Compensation Equalisation Fund’ (PR/CEF) to which the BCCI will contribute approximately ₹125 crore per annum from its surplus.”

BCCI also announced a new grade C for Indian Women’s Cricket team, which will see players earning ₹10 lakh per annum.