BCCI hikes fee for Indian cricketers
World's richest cricketing body, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has doubled the annual retainer fees and also hiked the match fees across all formats. The players in the Grade 'A' will now receive Rs. 2 crore per annum, Grade 'B' payers will receive Rs. 1 crore while the players in Grade 'C' will receive Rs. 50 lakhs annually.
Increase in match fees
The BCCI has increased the match fees and the new fees would be made effective retrospectively from 1 October 2016. A player will now receive Rs. 15 lakh per Test, Rs. 6 lakh per ODI and Rs. 3 lakh for T20I.
Grade 'A' list gets three new names
BCCI promoted Ravichandran Ashwin, Murali Vijay and Ravindra Jadeja into Grade 'A' after the annual fee was doubled by the Committee of Administrators (COA). While Ashwin and Vijay were earlier in grade 'B', Jadeja has been promoted from grade 'C'. Other players in the top most category are Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara.
Senior cricketers miss out on BCCI contracts
Senior players Harbhajan Singh and Suresh Raina did not find a place in the central contracts with the BCCI. Raina was a part of grade 'B', while Bhajji was part of the grade 'C' contract. Along with them, Gautam Gambhir is also not in the list. Top order batsman Shikhar Dhawan was demoted from grade 'B' to grade 'C' following his poor performance.
New entrants in the BCCI contract
With some fantastic performances in the recently concluded series, few new names have been added to the BCCI's annual contracts. Triple centurion Karun Nair has been added in the grade 'C' contract by the BCCI. Along with him, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav and Jayant Yadav have also found their places in the grade 'C' list of the BCCI.
BCCI's gesture towards late Rajesh Sawant
Rajesh Sawant's wife was handed a cheque of Rs. 15 lakh by the BCCI as a recognition of his services to Indian cricket. Sawant, a trainer for India's U-19 cricket team was found dead in his hotel room while on an official assignment in January.
