BCCI Central Contracts: Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara demoted from Grade A to B

Ajinkya Rahane

According to the BCCI, the A+ category carries a remuneration of Rs 7 crore, while the A, B and C categories are worth Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore, respectively. The BCCI’s Apex Council downgraded veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara and Former Indian Vice-Captain Ajinkya Rahane from Grade A to B in the latest central contracts list which was released on Wednesday. Due to their slump in form, Pujara, Rahane and Sharma, who were formerly rated Grade A, have now been degraded to Grade B. They will not be playing in the home series against Sri Lanka. That they will be downgraded was reported by PTI on January 20.

A+ Contract list has a like of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jaspit Bumrah. The number of players in Group A has now been reduced to five from a total of 10, with Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Mohammed Shami retaining their places.

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Few more players get demotion in the BCCI central contract list

In terms of moving down the list, the biggest demotion was for Hardik Pandya, who has been demoted from Grade A to C as well as Shikhar Dhawan, who now only plays one format – ODIs. As a result of being demoted to group C, controversial keeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha will still be worth Rs 1 crore more than he was in group B. The BCCI has placed Saha in group C for his violation of the central contract clause through his public comments on selection issues and his statements on BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and head coach Rahul Dravid. It has been clearly stated by the management of the team that he is unlikely to play for India again.

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Ratification was accomplished on the day, but this was already decided in advance that some of the non-performers would be demoted. Mayank Agarwal, who has been inconsistent throughout, has now been demoted to group C from group B, as a consequence of his removal from group B. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav and pacer Navdeep Saini have been dropped entirely from the list. Muhammad Siraj, who played heroic throughout the tournament, has been rewarded with a spot in group B, while Suryakumar Yadav has been promoted to group C because he played the required number of matches.