Last night, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the centrally contracted Indian players for the 2022/23 season. According to their media release, four categories of salary contracts have been set up – Grade A+ (₹7 crores annually), Grade A (₹5 crores), Grade B (₹3 crores), and Grade C (₹1 crore). Notable newcomers on the contracts list include Sanju Samson, Deepak Hooda, Ishan Kishan, and Arshdeep Singh. On the other hand, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have all been dropped by BCCI due to a decline in their performances. Moreover, two more Indian players have been demoted for their lackluster performance over the past 12 months.
1) KL Rahul
2022 was a disappointing year for KL Rahul on the international stage. The former vice-captain of the Indian cricket team saw his place in the T20I and the Test teams taken away due to his inconsistent performances. There has been no T20I action for Rahul this year, and he was dropped from the Test playing XI during India’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia.
Despite his previous struggles, Rahul remains a force in the ODI format and one of India’s top players. This year, the BCCI decided to reflect his recent results in their centrally contracted players list. Where Rahul was a Grade A player the previous season, earning an annual salary of ₹5 crores, the 2022/23 season has seen him demoted to Grade B, with his salary reduced to ₹3 crores.
2) Shardul Thakur
Shardul Thakur has been dropped down to the Grade C category of India’s annual central contracts list for 2022/23 from BCCI. Although he has had a decent performance record, he is no longer a regular in India’s Test and T20I teams. He got only one T20I match in 2022, where his figures were 2/33 in four overs, as well as 50 runs and 11 wickets in three Tests. In the ODI format, Thakur aggregated 163 runs and took 22 wickets in 16 games. This has led to a significant decrease in salary from ₹3 crores in 2021/22 to ₹1 crore in the upcoming season.
