The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced annual central contracts for the 2024-25 season, marking the return of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan.
Meanwhile, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy have been handed maiden Contracts.
The central contracts have been divided into four categories through which the Indian Cricketers’ salaries will be decided. A+, A, B, C, depending upon the players’ performances and participation across three formats.
Despite the speculations on Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jadeja’s exit from the A+ category, after their T20I retirement, they have been categorised in the top grade by the board.
The duo of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer who has been left out of the BCCI central contracts for 2023-24 season has been included in the contract.
With Shreyas Iyer was left out of the last central contract by the BCCI over certain disciplinary issues. While Iyer has already returned to the Indian team in the ODI format, Kishan has shown promising signs in the ongoing IPL 2025 campaign.
Category C features the maximum number of players, 19 in all, with four new entrants in Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Abhishek Sharma and Nitish Rana.
BCCI Central Contracts List:
Grade A+: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja
Grade A: Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya
Grade B: Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
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, Sarafraz Khan, Nitish Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Akash Deep, Varun Chakaravarthy and Harshit Rana
On the other hand, Ravichandran Ashwin has been retired from international Cricket.
Meanwhile players like Shardul Thakur, Jitesh Sharma, KS Bharath, Avesh Khan, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa has not been retained in the central contracts.
