On Sunday evening, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced its Annual Player Contracts for Team India (Senior Men) for the 2022-23 season.
Four players – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja – were put in the highest category, Grade A+, in which they will be fetching INR 7 crore per annum as the retainer. Ravindra Jadeja, who was in the Grade A bracket last year, has got a promotion, while KL Rahul has fallen from Grade A to Grade B.
A Grade A+ contract is worth INR 7 crore, Grade A is INR 5 crore, Grade B is INR 3 crore, and Grade C is INR 1 crore.
Two other all-rounders – Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya – have been promoted to Grade A category, from B and C respectively. Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav have moved up to Grade B from Grade C.
Two senior Test players – Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma – both of whom were dropped from the Test team last year – who were previously in Grade B, have not been given contracts this time, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha have all been dropped from the list.
The fans blasted the Indian Board and Indian Speedster for the pacer being placed in the highest category despite being injured and “rested” for most of the time in the past year.
Jasprit Bumrah has been out of action since October
Since August last year, Indian Pacer only featured in 2 T20Is and missed all other action due to his back injury. Among the important assignments in the past year that he’s missed were the Asia Cup, T20 World Cup, Test, and ODI series against Australia at home, and will also miss the WTC final and possibly the Asia Cup later this year.
Bumrah getting paid and being put in the highest category, alongside Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja – the Grade A+ category is only for the all three format players – has irked a section of fans, who feel Bumrah, while being injured and rested for a major portion of the past year, didn’t deserve to be in the same category as the other three who are in it.
Here are some of the tweets criticising Jasprit Bumrah’s allocation to Grade A+ bracket by the BCCI:
Bumrah really? How many matches he played and will be playing till September 2023 ? pic.twitter.com/LqroUqCJDy
— Rakamajipadavale (@RakamajiP) March 27, 2023
Bumrah taking rest and earning crores ☹️
— 𝑺𝑶𝑯𝑨𝑰𝑳' (@pratikxlucifer) March 26, 2023
A+ contract for Bumrah for taking time to time services of NCA?
— Ankit Shah (@TheAnkitShah) March 26, 2023
Fans reaction after looking at the name of Bumrah in A+ list. pic.twitter.com/iZWhrkhSzG
— Bhartiya Samachar (@TransformBh) March 26, 2023
A player with an A+ contract who only plays IPL🫣🫣and hardly plays international cricket
— Rohit (@imr0hit_) March 26, 2023
Bumrah agaian Wtf dude hasn’t been played a single meaningful game in last 5 years https://t.co/bHNsa60bVG
— ROD (@crazy_N28) March 26, 2023
When will Jasprit Bumrah return?
At the moment, the Board of Control for Cricket in India medical team is hoping that Jasprit Bumrah will resume his training by August and that he’s at his best by October for the ODI World Cup 2023 at home.
List of BCCI contracts for Indian men players:
Grade A+ category: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja
Grade A category: Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel
Grade B category: Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj, Suryakumar Yadav, Shubman Gill
Grade C category: Umesh Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat
