The Indian Cricket Board announced the central contract list for the upcoming season (2024-25) on Monday (Apr 21), including several newcomers like batter Abhishek Sharma, seamer Harshit Rana, all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy and spinner Varun Chakravarthy, among others. Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan are also back after getting dropped for not honouring BCCI’s orders early last year.

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After the BCCI made it mandatory for each centrally contracted player not picked for any Indian squad, injured or unavailable for any unavoidable personal reason, to appear for their respective state teams in domestic cricket, Iyer and Kishan decided against obeying the orders. While Iyer cited back issues for his absence from Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy games despite NCA doctors clearing him of any injury, Ishan remained unavailable for selection due to mental health issues. 

Coming back to BCCI's central contract list, the top-tier category (A+) has four players, including ODI and Test captain Rohit Sharma, star batter Virar Kohli, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and ace quick Jasprit Bumrah; the list, however, excludes Ravichandran Ashwin, who announced his Test retirement last year, although Rohit, Kohli and Jadeja retain their places despite stepping aside from the T20Is earlier in 2024.

On the other hand, the BCCI promoted gloveman Rishabh Pant from Grade B to Grade A, which also includes first-team players like Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya and Mohammed Shami. Shreyas Iyer, India’s mainstay white-ball batter, is also part of the Grade B, including Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Ishan Kishan, however, has been added to the C category.

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The new entrants

The ones who received their maiden BCCI central contracts include rising T20I batter Abhishek Sharma, batters Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel, alongside seamers Akash Deep and Harshit Rana. Team India’s mystery spinner Varun also earned his first BCCI contract.

However, a few were also left out, including Shardul Thakur, KS Bharat, Avesh Khan and keeper-batter Jitesh Sharma.

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Although the BCCI did not mention the contract amounts for each category, an ESPNcricinfo report suggests INR 7 crore plus for the A+ category, INR 5 crore (A), INR 3 crore (B) and INR 1 crore (C).

BCCI central contract list for 2024-25 -

  • Category A+ - Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja
  • Category A - Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant
  • Category B - Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer
  • Category C - Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Akash Deep, Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana

(With inputs from agencies)