Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma Demoted To 'Grade B' In BCCI's Central Contract List For 2025-26

BCCI Central Contracts: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has 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). Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been demoted to Grade B in BCCI's central contract list for 2025-26. Thirty senior men's cricketers have been awarded central contracts, with the BCCI doing away with the A+ grade. Only three cricketers - Test and ODI skipper Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja - have been placed in Grade A, the top tier as per the latest decision by the BCCI.

As per the 2024-25 BCCI contracts, any player in Grade A would receive Rs 5 crore annually, while Grade B players would get Rs 3 crore. Grade C players would get Rs 1 crore. Earlier, Grade A+ players (Kohli, Rohit, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja) used to receive Rs 7 crore. The BCCI has not yet officially declared whether the payment structure for 2025-26 will be any different.

As far as Kohli and Rohit are concerned, their retirement from Tests and T20Is effectively makes them one-format players and hence as per criteria, they couldn't have been retained in the top-most category.

In Grade B, the following players have been included: Washington Sundar, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya. 

In Grade C, the following players have been included: Axar Patel, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Sai Sudharsan, Ravi Bishnoi, Ruturaj Gaikwad.

21 women cricketers classified in Grade A, B and C. Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma and Jemimah Rodrigues are the four players to be included in Grade A.

The cycle for new central contract is based on performance and volume of games played during the preceding season.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Cricket Virat Kohli Rohit Sharma Shubman Gill Jasprit Bumrah Ravindra Jadeja BCCI