BCCI announces annual player retainership for 2022-23, Ravindra Jadeja handed top contract

The BCCI announced the Annual Player Contracts, which will run from October 2022 to September 2023, for India on March 26, with Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja levelling up to join Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Jasprit Bumrah in the A+ category. 

KL Rahul, who was handed a Grade A contract last year, has been demoted to B, while both Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya have been promoted to Grade A, from B and C respectively. Notably, Pandya who had moved from Grade B to A in the 2020-21 cycle, returned to action after facing plenty of fitness issues that kept him on the sidelines for extended periods.

Suryakumar Yadav, who received his maiden contract in 2021-22, has been promoted from Grade C to B, as has Shubman Gill. Rishabh Pant, R Ashwin and Mohammed Shami have been retained in the same Grade A from the previous cycle whereas Cheteshwar Pujara and Mohammed Siraj have also received the same retainer (Grade B) as last year. A notable demotion is that of Shardul Thakur, who has slipped from Grade B to C.

Meanwhile, Kuldeep Yadav, who was not retained in the previous cycle, has been handed a Grade C contract, while the other newly-contracted Grace C cricketers are: Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, and KS Bharat. 

Shikhar Dhawan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar and Umesh Yadav have all retained their Grade C contract, while Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar have all been dropped from the Grade C list. Also dropped is the senior duo of Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma, who both were in Grade B in 2021-22.

The biggest highlight remains the addition of Jadeja in the A+ category, which is worth INR 7 crore as opposed to INR 5 crore offered in Grade A. The Grade B and C contratcs, meanwhile, are worth INR 3 and INR 1 crore, respectively. 

A+ category: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja

A category: Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel

B category: Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Siraj, Suryakumar Yadav, Shubman Gill

C category: Umesh Yadav, Shikhar Dhawan, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat