Closing in on all the speculations, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) finally announced the renewed list of the centrally contracted players. Proving most of the reports are true, the board has abolished the A+ grade payment system.
As per the early claims, two legends of Indian cricket, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, will receive a lower salary according to the latest central contract. Kohli and Sharma are placed in Grade B of the payment system.
No room for Sarfaraz and Shami in BCCI Central Contract
Only three cricketers from the Men’s national cricket team are placed in Grade A. Test and ODI captain of Team India Shubman Gill, star pacer Jasprit Bumrah, and experienced all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja are named in Grade A. In total, BCCI has named 30 cricketers under the central contract.
Among the current star cricketers from the senior men’s cricket team, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Sanju Samson, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rinku Singh, and Dhruv Jurel are placed in Grade C. Like Rohit and Virat, T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav is also in Grade B, along with Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Mohammed Siraj.
Sarfaraz Khan and Mohammed Shami are some of the notable names that were not selected for the central contracts.
From the women’s national cricket team, World Cup 2025 winning captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Deepti Sharma are in the Grade A payment system. For the women’s national team, the board listed 21 cricketers’ names in the central contracts.
There are 4 cricketers each in Grade A and Grade B for the women’s cricket team, as most of the players are contracted under the Grade C category. Renuka Thakur, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, and Sneh Rana are named for the Grade B section from the women’s national cricket team.
BCCI announces the Annual Player Contracts for Team India Senior Men and Senior Women for the 2025-26 season (October 1st, 2025 to September 30th, 2026).
Grade A – Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma… pic.twitter.com/9sEg0MsPSV
— ANI (@ANI) February 9, 2026
BCCI Central Contracts for 2025-26 for the senior men’s cricket team:
Grade A: Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade B: Washington Sundar, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Mohammed Siraj, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer.
Grade C: Axar Patel, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Sai Sudharsan, Ravi Bishnoi, Ruturaj Gaikwad.
BCCI Central Contracts for 2025-26 for the Senior Women’s Cricket Team:
Grade A: Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Deepti Sharma.
Grade B: Renuka Thakur, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Sneh Rana.
Grade C: Radha Yadav, Amanjot Kaur, Pratika Rawal, Kranti Gaud, Uma Chetri, Arundhati Reddy, Sree Charani, Yastika Bhatia, Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, G. Kamalini, Vaishnavi Sharma, Tejal Hasabnis.
