The BCCI on Wednesday doubled the Annual Retainership fee of India's 32 centrally contracted cricketers with current skipper Virat Kohli and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the `2 crore Grade A bracket along with five others.
The COA on Wednesday announced that Grade A players would now be getting `2 crore as compared to the earlier `1 crore, while Grade B and C players will get `1 crore and `50 lakh respectively.
The match fee for Test matches has been hiked to `15 lakh per match from `7.50 lakh earlier, while ODI and T20 Internationals will make them richer by `6 lakh and 3 lakh respectively.
All the payments will be in effect from October 1, 2016.
The seven cricketers in the top bracket are Dhoni, Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Murali Vijay.
While seniors like Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra have found place in Grade B and C respectively, the biggest name missing is Suresh Raina, who till recently was a permanent member of the limited overs fixtures.
Young Rishabh Pant is a part of Grade C contract.
Raina had in fact played after October 1, 2016 but is not there in the 32-member list.
Harbhajan Singh and Gautam Gambhir are not in the list as they have played before the said date, from which the contracts are to come into effect.
The decision was taken in consultation with the national selection committee.
Grade A: Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay.
Grade B: Rohit Sharma, Kl Rahul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuvraj Singh.
Grade C: Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, Ashish Nehra, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur, Rishabh Pant.
Meanwhile, Sandhya Rajesh Sawant, wife of late Rajesh Sawant who unfortunately passed away while he was on official assignment with the India Under 19 team, was handed a cheque of `15 lakhs, in recognition of his services to Indian Cricket.
‘Won’t sacrifice India's interest’
The BCCI Committee of Administrators (COA) on Wednesday made it clear that they will not sacrifice India's interests while dealing with the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Former CAG Vinod Rai, leading the COA, spoke to select media on major issues BCCI is facing after their meeting here. The others present were COA members Ramachandra Guha, Diana Edulji and BCCI CEO Rahul Johri. "let us make one thing clear — we will not sacrifice India's interest. We have a mandate from the court to run the BCCI. Our attempt will be to ensure BCCI does not lose financially," said Rai.
Rai's comments come days after BCCI sent an 11-page letter to ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson, categorically rejecting the proposed revenue model and constitutional reforms.
"On this (ICC) issue, we met Shashank Manohar. He gave us good guidance. We are also conscious of the way the smaller nations are to be encouraged. We have to keep a balance and at the same time contribute for the improvement of cricket," he said further. Former BCCI chief Shashank Manohar recently resigned from the post of ICC Chairman.
When asked about not having enough knowledge about the functioning of ICC, Rai said it was not a major hurdle. "We are privy to the recording of the last SGM and we know what was discussed there. Manohar explained the revenue model of both the sides. He gave us full details of the financial models in the ICC."