The BCCI’s committee of administrators (COA) met on March 22 at the headquarters in Mumbai and decided on the player contract list for the 12-month period starting on 1 October 2016 and ending on 30 September 2017. The number of contracted players has risen from 26 to 32.
The annual retainer fee for each of the three grades, Grade A, B and C, has been doubled from what it was previously: Rs. 1 Crore (Grade A), Rs. 50 Lakhs (Grade B) and Rs. 25 Lakhs (Grade C). So, Grade A players will now receive a retainer amount of 2 Crore rupees, Grade B players will receive 1 Crore Rupees and Grade C players will receive 50 Lakh rupees.
This pay upgrade has been made after the Indian skipper Virat Kohli, on behalf of all the players, asked the authorities (in October last year) to revise the players’ central contracts. The decision to revise the central contracts and players’ match fees, which had remained unchanged since 2010, was taken by the BCCI with consultation from the committee of administrators who have been appointed by the country’s apex court.
According to the revised match fees, players will receive 15 Lakh rupees for a Test (previously 7 Lakhs), 6 Lakh rupees for every ODI (previously 4 Lakhs) and 3 Lakhs for every T20I, in effect from October 1, 2016.
The table below is that of the players in Grade A, Grade B and Grade C of BCCI’s central contracts for 2016-17:
Grade | Grade A (7) | Grade B (9) | Grade C (16) |
Retainer | 2 Crore Rupees (previously 1 Crore) |
1 Crore Rupees (previously 50 Lakhs) |
50 Lakh Rupees (previously 25 Lakhs) |
Existing players | Virat Kohli MS Dhoni Ravichandran Ashwin Ajinkya Rahane |
Rohit Sharma Bhuvneshwar Kumar Mohammed Shami Ishant Sharma Umesh Yadav |
Amit Mishra Dhawal Kulkarni Axar Patel |
New entrants | Cheteshwar Pujara (previously grade B) Murali Vijay (previously grade B) Ravindra Jadeja (previously grade C) |
Lokesh Rahul (previously grade C) Jasprit Bumrah Wriddhiman Saha (previously grade C) Yuvraj Singh |
Ashish Nehra Manish Pandey Hardik Pandya Yuzvendra Chahal Parthiv Patel Ambati Rayudu (previously grade B) Shikhar Dhawan (previously grade B) Karun Nair Jayant Yadav Mandeep Singh Shardul Thakur Rishabh Pant Kedar Jadhav |
Drop outs | N/A | Suresh Raina Ambati Rayudu Murali Vijay Cheteshwar Pujara Shikhar Dhawan |
Stuart Binny Harbhajan Singh Mohit Sharma Sreenath Aravind Varun Aaron Karn Sharma |
Harsh on Suresh Raina?
Manish pande Hardik pandya A categories