• Source:JND
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BCCI Central Contract 2025: Putting all speculations around Central Contract to rest, BCCI (Board Of Cricket Control In India) announced a list of 34 players who will come under the Annual Retainership plan by the board. There have been several questions around on how the players are classified into different categories.

For starters, there are four categories in total. Grade A+ category players get INR 7 crore whereas Grade A, B and C get INR 5, 3 and 1 crore annually.

A+ category is reserved for players who play all three formats. The A category is for players, who are Test match certainties and also play the other two formats from time to time. The category B is for players who at least play two formats regularly and C is for newcomers and one-format specialists.

BCCI Contract List, Check here:

Why Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja In Grade A+

As per a report by PTI, a top BCCI official explained the reasoning.

"The period of fresh central contract is from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025. But the assessment year is October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024. Kohli, Rohit and Jadeja played the T20 World Cup final in June, 2024 and hence at that time, they were all-format regulars. Going by that technicality, they are supposed to be in A+ category," the official PTI on condition of anonymity.

Why Shreyas Iyer In Grade A and Ishan Kishan In Grade B

"Similarly, Ishan (2 World Cup matches) and Shreyas played 15 ODIs and a handful Tests in the 2023-24 season and hence got their respective categories."

Rishabh Pant was downgraded to 'B' from A in last contract because he hadn't played any cricket during the year due to a life-threatening car accident.

After he returned to action in 2024, Pant played regularly in at least two of the three formats and hence is back in category 'A' in place of retired Ravichandran Ashwin.

Suryakumar Yadav has been retained in grade B because in last year's list he was a two-format regular having played most games of ODI World Cup in 2023 and also regular T20 skipper.

While there is not much change in terms of contracts offered in the top three categories, Grade C now has 19 players compared to 17 in the last list following the inclusion of Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel.

Inputs from PTI