BCCI Abandons MS Dhoni-Endorsed A+ Category In Central Contracts. Here's The Reason

The BCCI on Monday announced the Annual Player Contracts for Team India Senior Men and Senior Women for the 2025-26 season (October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026). Apart from the player list, one aspect that caught everyone's attention was that the BCCI had done away with the A+ category - the gold standard in the central contracts system. Over the years, only the best players across formats (often the captains) were included in this category, that was started in 2018. For the 2024-25 period, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja were part of the A+ category.

A report by news agency PTI stated that it is understood that A+ was a gradation introduced by the erstwhile Committee of Administrators (COA) at the behest of former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. It was meant to reward excellence across all three formats, and over the years, only four players - Kohli, Rohit, Jadeja and Bumrah - qualified for the category.

But with three of the four retiring from one or two formats, the BCCI didn't want only Bumrah to remain in A+, as the national selection committee isn't convinced that Test and ODI skipper Shubman Gill is an all-format certainty after being dropped from the T20 World Cup squad.

One interesting aspect, however, will be whether Bumrah is paid the earlier retainership amount (Rs 7 crore), as he is still an automatic choice across all formats - and it is not his fault that the highest category has been discontinued.

In the 30 names announced, only three have been placed in Grade A, 11 in Grade B and 16 in Grade C. The only surprise, although a minor one, is senior player Axar Patel - who regularly plays ODIs and T20Is and is part of the Test squad - being relegated to Group C along with one-format players. The BCCI on Monday awarded central contracts to 30 men and 21 women cricketers, classified into Groups A, B and C.

Two-format skipper Shubman Gill, along with senior pacer Jasprit Bumrah and premier Test all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, were retained in Group A.

However, the BCCI did not mention the quantum of retainership fees for the three categories. With A+ being discontinued, in earlier seasons Group A was valued at 5 crore, Group B at Rs 3 crore annually, and Group C at Rs 1 crore.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Virat Kohli MS Dhoni Rohit Sharma Jasprit Bumrah Shubman Gill BCCI Cricket