BCCI Apex Council Meeting: Hardik Pandya central contract promotion, Team India jersey sponsors' status discussed

The BCCI Apex Council Meeting turned out to be contrary to the initial speculations suggesting that Team India's performance after their humiliating exit from the T20 World Cup 2022 will be reviewed. The Indian cricket board in its apex council meeting didn’t discuss about senior men's team performance. The council will rather wait for the new selection committee to be formed and will leave the discussion to them to decide the future of Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid in white-ball cricket.

The members of the board discussed the status of two of their leading sponsors - Byju’s and MPL Sports, as per a report in Sportstar. The board has asked the ed-tech company to continue until March 2023 whereas MPL Sports will likely assign its rights to fashion brand KKCL.

On the other hand, Hardik Pandya is likely to get a massive promotion in the central contract. The 29-year-old is currently part of Group C but as per reports, the IPL-winning captain will be promoted to Group A, along with Suryakumar Yadav. Youngster Shubman Gill might get promoted as well.

Players who are currently playing all three formats of the game will be part of the A+ category while icon players and players who feature only in white-ball cricket will be a part of the A category. Meanwhile, other Test or white-ball cricketers will be part of the B category and emerging players will find themselves in the C category of BCCI’s new central contract.

Other important decisions that took place in BCCI’s Apex Council Meeting

It was reported for weeks and BCCI on Wednesday, December 21 confirmed that a one-time payment would be made to V Jayadevan, whose rain-rule formula has been a revelation in India’s domestic circuit. BCCI is using it for more than a decade now and thus, the secretary was authorised to take the process forward and reward Jayadevan for his contribution. 

On the other hand, a three-member sub-committee has also been formed to take care of the infrastructural developments of multiple venues across India. As per initial reports, Ashish Shelar and Devojit Saikia will be part of the committee.