XtraTime Web Desk: BCCI has implemented A+ category for player contracts which were a brain child of none other than India skipper Virat Kohli and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The players who perform really well for the nation in all three formats of the game are in this category. The players who are in this category will earn 7 crore each season, A category cricketers will get 5 crore, Rs 3 crore for B category and 1 crore for C.
“This suggestion originated from Virat and MS in the discussions,” said Vinod Rai, chairman of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) to ESPNcricinfo. The players wanted this category to be dynamic and to feature only the best performers. “Their logic was this category would have only players featuring in all three formats, players who are in the top-10 rankings,” Rai continued. “They wanted a category of pure excellence where you perform and you are rewarded. And hence the players would not occupy a permanent slot in this category because if you don’t perform then you slip down the order,” he added further.
The talks regarding pay hike started when Anil Kumble was the coach of the Indian team where he showed a presentation to the BCCI top brass and CoA and urged that there should be no disparity in salaries between Indian players and their English or Australian counterparts. In recent times while talking to the CoA, Kohli, Dhoni and current coach Ravi Shastri raised their voice for A+ category.
Skipper Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah are in A+ category. Except Bhuvneshwar Kumar, all other cricketers are in top-10 of ICC Rankings but he played a crucial role in India’s win on Proteas soil.