BCCI has released its central contract list for 2024-25 with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja continuing to be the highest paid players by the Indian board. Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan have also found themselves as part of the BCCI contract.
BCCI’s central contract list:
BCCI has decided to award the annual contract to a total of 33 players, with the top four players in the A+ category remaining the same.
Meanwhile, 6 players, including KL Rahul and Mohammed Siraj, have found a place in the A category. India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav, along with Shreyas Iyer and 3 other cricketers, have found a place in the Grade B category.
The highest number of players (18) are in the Grade C category, which includes the likes of Rinku Singh, Ishan Kishan and Abhishek Sharma.
Who earns what?
Players in Grade A+ category earn the most at ₹7 crore annually, followed by Grade A at ₹5 crore annually and so on. Below is the full break up of pay scale for each category of players.
Full list of players with BCCI central contract:
Grade A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja
Grade A: Md. Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Md. Shami, Rishabh Pant
Grade B: Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer
Grade C: Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Akash Deep, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana
What’s changed this year?
The most visible change in this year’s central contracts is the inclusion of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan in the BCCI set-up. The two players were singled out last year for not playing in domestic tournaments despite the Indian board’s dikatat.
This year, however, Iyer has played in all formats of domestic cricket, while also playing for the Men in Blue in the 2025 Champions Trophy.
Kishan, on the other hand, has been in fine form with a match-winning century for Sunrisers Hyderabad, showing the selectors that he can’t be ignored for long.
Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin, who has retired from all forms of international cricket, has no place in the annual contracts and his place in the Grade A category has been taken by Rishabh Pant.