BCCI announces new annual contract system; Virat Kohli moves up to Grade A+

The Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) has announced a new contract system for both men's and women's senior national teams for the period from October 2017 to September 2018. Moreover, in a welcome decision, the board has increased the match fees of domestic cricketers, of each category, by 200 percent.

The Domestic Match fee structure will witness an over 200 per cent hike in each category.

— BCCI (@BCCI) March 7, 2018

As far as the senior men's team is concerned, a new A+ category has been introduced - previously, players under Grade A were paid the most - which consists of five players, namely, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. These five cricketers are set to earn INR 7 crore individually over the course of a year.

Grade A cricketers will be earning INR 5 crore each annually and the likes of MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are a part of it. Players under Grade B(Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma and Dinesh Karthik) will be receiving a sum total of INR 3 crore each in the stipulated time period.

The lowest grade, C, has the likes of Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Parthiv Patel and Jayant Yadav, who will earn INR 1 crore each in a year. Surprisingly, Mohammed Shami is not a part of the annual contract list released by the board.

#TeamIndia Senior Men retainership fee structure:Grade A+ players to receive INR 7 cr eachGrade A players to receive INR 5 cr eachGrade B players to receive INR 3 cr eachGrade C players to receive INR 1 cr each

— BCCI (@BCCI) March 7, 2018

#BCCI #NewContract A+: Kohli, Rohit, Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar, Jasprit; A Grade: Dhoni, Ashwin, Jaddu, Vijay, Pujara, Rahane, Saha, pic.twitter.com/0tKVOU0fDH

— Bagawati Prasad (@Baggs0404) March 7, 2018

For the senior women's team, a new category, Grade C has been introduced as previously there were only two categories. Grade A players - Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana - will pocket a sum of INR 50 lacs each while Grade B and Grade C women players will receive INR 30 lacs each and INR 10 lacs each respectively.

#TeamIndia Senior Women retainership fee structure:Grade A players to receive INR 50 lacs eachGrade B players to receive INR 30 lacs eachGrade C players to receive INR 10 lacs each pic.twitter.com/u05YDFocWN

— BCCI (@BCCI) March 7, 2018