Stakeholders disagree over having all senior players in A+ category of BCCI central contracts - Reports

Stakeholders present in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have reportedly disagreed to have all the senior players in the A+ category of the central contract. Over the last year, a couple of senior statesmen in the team have announced retirement from one format or the other, owing to which there could be a change in the central contracts list.

On March 24, BCCI announced the central contracts for India's women players, which saw Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Deepti Sharma get Grade A contracts. With the list of players soon to be announced for the men's side, there are expected to be a few changes, mostly in the A+ category.

As reported by NDTV, there is a disagreement over Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravindra Jadeja being retained in the A+ category for the central contracts. The three players, alongside Jasprit Bumrah, played all three formats regularly till last year. With Kohli, Rohit, and Jadeja having announced retirement from T20Is, there is a discussion among stakeholders in BCCI about whether the players should be retained in the A+ category.

Ravichandran Ashwin, who announced his retirement from all formats of the game last year, was a part of the A-grade contract. He will no longer feature in the players list for contracts.

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Shreyas Iyer could be awarded a central contract this year

During the Test series against England last year, Shreyas Iyer was excluded from the central contracts list and was dropped from the Test team altogether. For any player to enter the central contracts list, they are required to play either three Tests, eight ODIs, or 10 T20Is. Iyer, who featured in 11 ODI games in the last calendar year, is eligible for the central contracts.

Nitish Kumar Reddy, Sarfaraz Khan, and Akash Deep, all of whom have played three Tests or more, could be awarded central contracts and feature in one of the four categories. It is also reported that Yashasvi Jaiswal and Axar Patel could see them move from their current to a higher category.