BCCI announces central contracts: Kohli & Rohit Sharma in A+ pay grade, Natarajan snubbed

Skipper Virat Kohli alongside his limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah are the only three players of Team India to bag an A+ contract. The central contract list has been announced by the BCCI on Thursday evening for the period of October 2020 to September 2021. As per the board, the players receiving a Grade A+ contract will receive an annual salary of INR 7 crores. 

In the Grade A contract list which costs INR 5 crores, 10 cricketers have been named. These include the likes of veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya amongst others. Significantly, Natarajan and Manish Pandey have failed to bag a central contract despite the former's impeccable debut during the Australia tour and his continuous selection in subsequent limited-overs series. 

Shardul Thakur, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha and Mayank Agarwal have bagged a B Grade contract which brings them into the pay category of an annual INR 3 crores. Despite Kuldeep Yadav's continuous snub, the chinaman has bagged a C Grade contract alongside Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Axar Patel and Shreyas Iyer. Team India's SCG Test hero Hanuma Vihari has managed to bag a C grade contract whereas recent debutants Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj will also receive an annual fee of Rs 1 crores under the C category contract. 

Full BCCI contract list here - 

Players with A+ contracts: 

Cricketers with A grade contracts:

Players that have bagged B grade contracts :

Players with C grade contracts: