Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma set to be dropped from central contract list by the BCCI

Central contracts will allegedly be discussed by the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), as it has been added to the agenda for the upcoming Apex Council Meeting on December 21 along with 11 other topics.

The bulk of Team India’s players are presently employed on contracts. There are four established categories: A+, A, B, and C. The top cricketers fall under the A+ category and receive an annual salary of $7 crore. Most all-format players and regular Test players fall into the A and B categories, which pay correspondingly 5 crore and 3 crore per year.

Cricketers who have played in the required number of international matches are eligible for a central contract and are typically placed in the C category, which pays $1 crore annually, along with other single-format players.

Leading all-arounder Hardik Pandya will allegedly receive an upgrade to a B grade contract. Pandya is a likely candidate for the T20 format captaincy should the board elect to use split captaincy. It should be noted that after mostly playing as a batter in 2021, he was downgraded when the prior list was released.

Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill’s contract status is being closely considered by the BCCI. The two had a historic year and are poised to be key going forward.