BCCI announces Annual Contract for 2023-24

The BCCI on February 28 2024 announced the annual player contracts for the men’s team for the 2023-24 session. The Annual Player Contracts for Team India will be valid from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024.

Grade A+, the most elite of them all saw no change. The list, like time, consists of Captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja. They are likely to get paid ₹7 crore each annually.

Grade A has players KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, and Shubman Gill as new joiners while Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, and Hardik Pandya are still in Grade A like last year. The players in this category usually get up to ₹5 crore annually.

Suryakumar Yadav, who ranks No.1 in T20I as a batter is part of Grade B, joined by Yashasvi Jaiswal, for whom this will be the first time to grab the BCCI central contract while Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi and Jitesh Sharma, have grabbed Grade C contracts. Grade B players are likely to get paid up to ₹3 crore each annually, while all the players in Grade C will get an annual remuneration of up to ₹1 crore each.

Apart from this, athletes who meet the criteria of playing a minimum of 3 Tests and 8 ODIs or 10 T20Is within the specified period will automatically be included in Grade C on a pro-rata basis. Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan could be inducted into Grade C if they participate in the Dharamsala Test Match. Currently, both Jurel and Sarfaraz have played two Test matches each and if they feature in the upcoming fifth Test in Dharamshala, they will fulfill the eligibility criteria to receive their maiden BCCI contracts.

Athletes Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal, and Vidwath Kaverappa have been recommended for the Fast-Bowling contracts. The BCCI, in a statement, has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket when they are not representing the national team.

Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations.