New Delhi, Jan 20 The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will discuss possible changes to the India men’s central contracts system at its next Apex Council meeting, as per proposals from the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee.
Sources in the BCCI told IANS on Tuesday that the five-member selection panel has made some proposals, though it is understood that the board’s top brass haven't received them yet, and a formal discussion will take place at the upcoming meeting.
"A possibility of change in the grading system in India men's central contracts will come for discussion in the next BCCI Apex Council meeting. The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee is learnt to have made some proposals and it will be discussed in the Apex Council meeting, for which a date will be announced in due course of time," sources said further.
It is further understood that Grade A+ is likely to be phased out, but its final fate and any subsequent monetary changes will be implemented only after the Apex Council approves them at the meeting.
As of now, annual retainers for Indian men’s cricketers are categorised into A+, A, B, and C grades, in addition to match fees across different formats. The retainer amount for Grade A+ players is Rs 7 crore, while Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore, and Rs 1 crore are given to cricketers in Grades A, B, and C, respectively.
Currently, senior players Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja are in the A+ bracket. However, it will be interesting to see whether Kohli and Rohit, who play only ODIs, and Jadeja, who plays Tests and ODIs, will continue to be in the top tier of annual retainers, especially if the system changes.
According to the 2024/25 contracts list announced on April 21, 2025, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill (now India’s Test and ODI skipper), Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, and Rishabh Pant were in Grade A. India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer were placed in Grade B.
Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Akash Deep, Varun Chakaravarthy and Harshit Rana were placed in Grade C.
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