BCCI announced new payment structure and contract list of Indian cricketers in 2018. The annual contracts are for the period from October 2017 to September 2018. The board has also increased the salary of domestic cricketers of each category by 200%.
Significantly, Mohammed Shami, whose wife Hasin Jahan has accused him of torture and cheating, does not feature in any of the categories.
Former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and senior off-spinner R Ashwin are relegated from the top-paid bracket with the BCCI introducing a new A+ category in the central contracts.
Players under Grade A will be paid the most – which consists of five players- Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. These five cricketers will earn INR 7 crore individually over the course of a year.
KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma and Dinesh Karthik have been awarded Grade B contracts. These players will be paid Rs. 3 crore each.
The players who are in Grade C include Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel and Jayant Yadav. These players will be paid Rs. 1 crore each.
Women’s category of Grade A include Jhulan Goswami, Mithali Raj, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur. These players will be paid Rs. 50 lakh each.
The players who are in grade B include Poonam Yadav, Veda Krishnamurthy, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Ekta Bisht and Shikha Pandey. These players will be paid Rs. 30 lakh each.
Payment structure and contract list of Indian cricketers in 2018
Men’s category
A+ category (Rs 7 crore each): Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah.
A category (Rs 5 crore each): MS Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Wridhhiman Saha.
B category (Rs 3 crore each): KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma and Dinesh Karthik.
C category (Rs 1 crore each): Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel and Jayant Yadav.
