Putting an end to all the speculations, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) finally announced the updated list of centrally contracted players. Proving most of the reports to be true, the Board has abolished the A+ grade payment system.
According to initial claims, two legends of Indian cricket, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, will get less salary as per the latest central contract. Kohli and Sharma have been placed in Grade B of the pay system.
There is no place for Sarfaraz and Shami in BCCI central contract
Only three cricketers from the men’s national cricket team have been placed in Grade A. Team India’s Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill, star fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and experienced all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja have been named in Grade A. Overall, BCCI has named 30 cricketers under central contract.
The current star cricketers of the senior men’s cricket team, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakraborty, Sanju Samson, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rinku Singh and Dhruv Jurel have been 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 who were not selected for the central contract.
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 pay system. For the women’s national team, the board listed the names of 21 cricketers in the central contract.
The women’s cricket team has 4 cricketers each in Grade A and Grade B, as most of the players are contracted under the Grade C category. Renuka Thakur, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh and Sneh Rana have been named for the Grade B category from the women’s national cricket team.
BCCI announced the annual player contracts for Team India’s senior men and senior women for the 2025-26 season (October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026).
Grade A – Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma… pic.twitter.com/9sEg0MsPSV
– ANI (@ANI) 9 February 2026
BCCI Central Contract for 2025-26 for 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 Verma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dubey, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakraborty, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhishek Sharma, Sai Sudarshan, Ravi Bishnoi, Ruturaj Gaikwad.
BCCI Central Contract for 2025-26 for 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 Gaur, Uma Chhetri, Arundhati Reddy, Sri Charani, Yastika Bhatia, Harleen Deol, Kashvi Gautam, G Kamalini, Vaishnavi Sharma, Tejal Hassabnis.
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