BCCI announces central contracts for 2020-21 season

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the central contracts for Men’s cricketers for the 2020-21 season. The new contract period starts from October 2020 and will go until September 2021. A total of 28 Indian cricketers have received contracts with Shubman Gill and Axar Patel being the newest additions from the last season. The youngster made his Test debut on the Australia tour in December last year and performed well.

The payment structures have remained the same compared to the last season with the players divided into four categories – A+, A, B, and C. The players in the top category (A+) are Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah who will earn Rs 7 crore for the said period. The cricketers involved in grades A, B and C will be paid INR 5 crores, 3 crores and 1 crore respectively.

Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal demoted

Kuldeep Yadav is one of the demoted players from the last year as he is listed in Grade C. He was in Grade A last season and has suffered due to his recent form as he has struggled to make it to the playing XI and hasn’t performed in limited opportunities either.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar who only made his comeback to competitive cricket in the T20I series against England has also been demoted to Grade B mostly due to the lack of cricket he played. He got injured at the start of the IPL last season and was ruled out of the action for almost six months. Another wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has also been demoted from Grade B to C despite playing most of the matches in the limited-overs format.

Kedar Jadhav has not received a central contract after being part of Grade C last season. He was dropped from the team last year following not so good performances and is unlikely to make a comeback in any of the limited-overs formats now.