MS Dhoni likely to miss out on top BCCI contract
It is learnt that CoA in its meet today devised a four grade contract formula -- A+, A, B, C -- after which players will get their much-awaited pay hike
MS Dhoni may miss out on the top central contract of the Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI) in India. The Committee of Administrators (CoA) had approved a pay hike for Team India cricketers after a meeting with skipper Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Ravi Shastri in New Delhi on November 30.
It is learnt that CoA in its meet today devised a four-grade contract formula — A+, A, B, C — after which players will get their much-awaited pay hike. The guidelines such as players playing all forms of the game to fall under A+ category were discussed, because of which MS Dhoni may have to miss out, having retired from Test cricket, as revealed by India Today.
However, this does not mean that this applies to every player playing a single format. Avenues have been kept open for players like Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja who are missing out of action from limited-overs cricket under the current rotation policy the team has adopted. In consideration, they will stay in higher grades as their ICC rankings in other formats are also factors that will be considered eventually.
CoA to send the guidelines to the BCCI
Although the gradation shortlisting will be done by the selectors, there will be lesser scope for subjective evaluation. The Supreme Court-appointed committee will submit the gradation guidelines to the BCCI’s finance committee soon, which will then deliberate on the issue before sending their feedback to the CoA.
It will be interesting to see what kind of an equation will it be for Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay will be, considering they are the regular premier players in Test cricket, which also happens to be the only format they play. There had been several people backing Pujara to be compensated better because of the absence of a lucrative IPL contract also.
Last year, the Indian cricketers’ central contracts saw a two-fold rise with top players in Group A earning Rs 2 crore annually. Despite the cent percent hike in annual contracts, players including Virat Kohli were not happy and the then coach Anil Kumble had taken the matter to the CoA, asking them to consider raising it to Rs 5 crore for Grade A cricketers. Currently, the Indian players earn less than 8 percent (7.8 percent) of BCCI revenues.
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