The BCCI announced the new contracts for the Indian players. It runs from October 2022 till September 2023. There were quite a few changes. Some of them were deserved whereas others have raised some eyebrows for sure. An A+ contract is worth INR 7 crore, A is INR 5 crore, B is INR 3 crore, and C is INR 1 crore. This is my take on the Indian contracted cricketers.
First, let me write an overview of the various contracts.
Ravindra Jadeja has moved up a grade to A+ and joins Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah. Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya have been promoted to Grade A, from B and C respectively, while KL Rahul has dropped from A to B. Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav have moved upto Grade B from C.
Shardul Thakur has dropped from Grade B to C, while Kuldeep Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, and KS Bharat are all newly-contracted players in Grade C. Washington Sundar retains his spot in Grade C.
Another important aspect is that Rahane, Ishant Sharma, Vihari, Saha were dropped from the contracted players altogether.
This is the essence of the latest BCCI contract. It raises a few questions certainly.
Question one
First, how was Virat Kohli and Bumrah retained in A+ for so long? Everyone is aware of the struggle that Kohli went through over 3 years without a single hundred and just a handful of 50s. Ofcourse, it made sense to keep him in the team despite his low returns because of his outrageous form for several years alongwith his match-winning innings in various white ball games. However, that should not have kept him in A+ for so long. It must be one or the other. Either you be in the squad and in a category that is below A+, which usually means elite or you are out of the team which anyway implies that he will be downgraded.
Question 2
Second, Jasprit Bumrah. Here is a cricketer who hasn’t played for the country for quite sometime and who is unlikely to play for a further 6 months, retained in A+ category. This simply does not make much sense. Jasprit Bumrah has been treated with kids gloves for way too long. He seldom plays in harsh Asian conditions and throughout most of his career, has played only on pitches that help the faster bowlers. Whereas someone like Umesh Yadav, who toils on the Indian pitches that do not have anything for him, is repeatedly dropped from the team.
Ofcourse, I am not going to find fault with that. Bumrah in his career, hasn’t won games against the major nations. The defeats in South Africa, New Zealand and the WTC final of 2021 are all cases in point. It is not like the bygone years when a player depends on the money from the BCCI but not any longer. Bumrah has played for Mumbai Indians for 10 years and as such his financial situation is stable. Playing for the nation must be seen as for the elite.
Observation
Rohit Sharma deserves A+ only because of the fact that he is the captain across all the formats.
KL Rahul has been demoted and rightly so. His performances have not been upto the mark. I have said this often. In white ball cricket, he is a middle-order batsman rather than an opener. He could flourish if he himself informs the management that he prefers to bat in the middle in both ODI and T20. Test cricket is not his forte. It is good to see that Sundar has retained his contract despite not at all being in the limelight. He surely is a batsman with the future in mind. It is also good to see new faces in the contract list like Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Bharat and a few others.
The biggest talking point
For me, the biggest anomaly is the sudden elevation of Hardik Pandya by 2 categories. Yes, he is marked as a future captain. He is likely to lead India in the 2024 T20 World Cup. He has also captained the ODI squad in Rohit’s absence. However, he has hardly played 10 games as the captain. Is the sample enough to elevate him by 2 levels? Certainly not. Hardik does not play Test cricket. He is unlikely to play Tests in the near future. Shouldn’t the criteria for an A grade be capable of playing in 2 formats plus closer to Tests?
Take the case of Shubman Gill. With Rahul dropped from the Test team and Gill scoring a century at Ahmedabad, it is more or less certain that Gill will be part of all the 3 formats. He has replaced Dhawan in ODI and is likely to accompany Rohit in T20s too. He has just scored hundreds in all the formats and has become one of the handful of cricketers to do so. Now, why was he moved up just one grade? Shouldn’t he be in A grade too? If Hardik could move up by 2 grades, Shubman based on his performance alone commands a similar move.
Wrong not to retain some players
From the rejected list, it is really unfair to drop Vihari completely. Not long ago, he was involved in a partnership with Ashwin at Sydney which paved the way for Pant’s heroics for India to win the series. He has hardly been given a consistent run in the team and now finds himself out of contract. In 2022, he averaged 35.83. Not bad when compared to Rahul. He must find a spot atleast in grade C.
Rahane and Ishant may not play for the country again but it does not make sense to drop them just one year after they found themselves out of the team. It is not that they depend on the pay packet of the BCCI but it would have given the out of favour players some signal that they are valued. I would suggest that contracts must be retained for 3 years after the players were dropped.
Wrapping up the Indian contracted cricketers
Before the millennium, Indian cricketers were clamouring for some form of financial support from the BCCI. These contracts would have helped them in a big way. The current cricketers are being paid way more than they deserve. It is time to retrospect.
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