The Committee of Administrators (COA) of the Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI), in India has doubled the Annual Retainer Fees for Indian Cricketers.
The annual retainership amounted of RS 2 crore, has been granted to seven Grade A cricketers, including Captain Virat Kohli and Former Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, are the latest players who have been upgraded to Grade A Category in the annual player contracts.
The Match Fee enhancement for men cricketers will be effective from 1 October 2016 onwards.
Under the terms of the contract, Rs.15 lakh per Test, Rs.6 lakh per ODI and Rs.3 lakh for T20Is will be paid to the cricketers.
Opening batsman, KL Rahul, medium-pacer Jasprit Bumrah and batsman Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, and Wriddhiman Saha, are the notable players, in Grade B, whose annual salary has been increased, from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore.
In the Grade C category, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, Ashish Nehra, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur, Rishabh Pant, are among the players in this category, who will be getting Rs 50 lakhs per year.
According to the sources, the cricketers were not happy with their pay structure. Some of the IPL players made a huge salary, while the others were not happy with the kind of money they were getting from the world’s richest cricket board.
Chairman of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) Vinod Rai calls this one of the reasons.
“There are a number of issues which come into play when we revise the contracts. It may not be disparity alone but we have to bring about a certain element of consistency between all the parties which are being employed by the BCCI,” added Mr.Rai.
The BCCI further said in a statement, “The amount is exactly double, what was offered to the players in the same category when the board last announced its annual contracts, in the earlier years.”
Additionally, the cricketers will also get an additional amount in respect to the format of the game they play.
Notable exceptions from the list of players awarded contracts include off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and left-handed batsman Suresh Raina. Shikhar Dhawan has been demoted to a Grade C contract.
By Supraja
