ROHIT Sharma and Virat Kohli were demoted in the Board of Control for Cricket in India's central contract list for the 2025-26 season. Sharma and Kohli, post their retirement in two of the three formats, now find themselves in Category B. Last year, they were in A+. This year, the Board have done away with that tier itself.
Curiously, Ishan Kishan, who has played himself into the World Cup XI at Sanju Samson's expense after a string of explosive displays at the top of the order, has been dropped again from the list. Last year, both Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were reinstated after being dropped a year earlier. Interestingly, this T20 World Cup too Ishan made his way into the team some scintillating performances in the lead up to the mega event. He replaced Sanju Samson in playing XI.
Shubman Gill, now the public face of the national team, has won a promotion even though he remains in Category A, the top-most scale. Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja are other other members of the grade. Mohammed Shami, a top performer for the better part of the last decade, is out of the list altogether.
In all, there are 30 men's cricketers, a drop from 34. While the BCCI didn't say the payscale, last year it was `7 cr (Grade A+), `5cr (A), `3cr (B) and `1cr (C). One wonders if A has been bumped from `5cr to `7cr, with the other grades also receiving a proportionate increase.
In the women's team, Harmanpreet Singh, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues and Deepti Sharma are in Grade A, with four more players in Grade B. Rodrigues is of course the big mover among the women's team thanks in no small part to the role she played at the World Cup. While BCCI have not released the payscale, last year it was `50 lakh, `30 lakh and `10 lakh. In all, there are 21 centrally contracted women's players for the year.