Exclusive: Annual Salaries of Team India Players for 18-19 revealed
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the annual player contract list (salaries) for Team India Men and Women team for the year 2018-19. The duration of the contract is from October 2018 to September 2019.
While there are many expected retentions, there are many surprising exclusions too. So, let’s try and look at the key changes from last year and a few surprising additions and deletions to the contract list.
INDIAN MEN:
Grade A+: INR 7 CR.
Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah have retained their Grade A+ contract. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shikhar Dhawan have been demoted to Grade A owing to their not-so-impressive performances last year.
BCCI states that for the player to stay in the A+ Grade list, he has to play all three formats and has to be ranked in the top 10 of the rankings. That is where Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar missed out.
Grade A: INR 5 CR.
The Grade A includes a new addition in the form of Rishabh Pant, who had a superb debut year in Test Cricket last year shattering many records. There have been many debates regarding his inclusion in the Grade A contract considering he has hardly played well in limited cricket.
However, it is understood that Rishabh Pant has been awarded a Grade A contract owing to his superb exploits in Test Cricket.
The test regulars such as Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Ajinkya Rahane have retained their Grade A contracts. The limited-overs specialist, MS Dhoni has retained his Grade A contract. Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja, who features in Tests and ODIs has retained his contract in Grade A.
There is also a debate regarding Cheteshwar Pujara’s absence from the Grade A+ contract, but considering he plays only one format, he couldn’t qualify for the Grade A+ contract based on BCCI’s defined template.
Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav are the new entrants to the Grade A category owing to their superb performances. While Ishant Sharma too has been promoted to Grade A from Grade B.
Murali Vijay couldn’t retain his Grade A contract, and he was dropped from the player contract list entirely.
Grade B: INR 3 CR.
The Koffee with Karan controversy lads, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya have retained their Grade B contract. However, it is understood that they would have been placed in higher grades if they weren’t involved in the controversy.
Yuzvendra Chahal and Umesh Yadav have retained their Grade B contract.
Grade C: INR 1 CR.
Grade C has seen many changes as Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Axar Patel, Suresh Raina and Parthiv Patel couldn’t retain in the Grade C category, and have been omitted altogether.
Kedar Jadhav and Manish Pandey are the only two people to remain in their Grade C contract.
Dinesh Karthik and Wridhhiman Saha have bee demoted to Grade C contract from their initial Grade B and Grade A contract respectively.
Khaleel Ahmed, Hanuma Vihari and Ambati Rayudu are the new additions to the Player contract list for 2018-19. All three have been awarded a Grade C contract.
The new players like Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Krunal Pandya couldn’t earn a contract in 2018-19 considering they are yet to qualify based on the minimum matches criteria.
INDIAN WOMEN:
The Indian women team has not seen many changes. Only Nuzhat Parveen and Sushma Verma couldn’t retain their place in the BCCI annual player contract list for 2018-19.
Grade A: INR 50 L
Mithali Raj, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur have retained their Grade A contract. However, Jhulan Goswami got demoted to Grade B. While, Poonam Yadav got upgraded to Grade A contract.
Grade B: INR 30 L
Grade B contract has seen few changes as Veda Krishnamurthy and Rajeshwari Gayakwad have been demoted to Grade C. Jemimah Rodrigues has been promoted to Grade B while Ekta Bisht, Shikha Pandey and Deepti Sharma retained their Grade B contract.
Grade C: INR 30 L
Grade C has seen many new additions in the updates list. Arundhati Reddy, D Hemlatha and Radha Yadav have been added to the Grade C for the first time. While, Mansi Joshi, Anuja Patil, Mona Meshram, Punam Raut, Pooja Vastrakar, and Taniya Bhatia retained their Grade C contract.
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Adesh Kothari is the founder of AK4Tsay1 Cricalytics with over 20 years of experience following Cricket.
Cricket to him is like what Football is to Lionel Messi, Singing is to Lata Mangeshkar, Dancing is to Michael Jackson, and Acting is to Clint Eastwood.
Besides his effervescent love for Cricket, Adesh is an MBA by qualification.
