India men’s head coach Gautam Gambhir and chairman of the national selection panel Ajit Agarkar are set to discuss the prolonged central contracts for the ongoing cycle with the BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia in Guwahati on Saturday.
Earlier in the week, the BCCI announced the annual retainer for women, days after The Hindu reported that the central contracts were yet to be finalised despite half of the 2024-25 cycle having been completed.
It is understood that Saikia and Agarkar had a brief discussion about the issue on the sidelines of the Indian Premier League’s (IPL’s) opening ceremony in Kolkata last week. Since Gambhir was on a family vacation overseas, it was decided to convene a meeting in Guwahati, Saikia’s hometown, where Agarkar is going to watch an IPL match over the weekend.
While the composition of India and India A squads to tour England right after IPL may also be discussed, it will be interesting to what approach the selection committee, the head coach and BCCI office-bearers adopt while dealing with multiple delicate issues.
Top on the agenda will be whether to retain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the top bracket of the contracts list. Despite the duo having retired from T20Is and Rohit’s future in Test cricket being far from certain, they are set to be retained in the top tier. Not only have they proven their worth in the limited overs’ format in the preceding and the ongoing cycle, there is a precedent in M.S. Dhoni having been retained in the top bracket despite limited availability in international cricket.
Shreyas Iyer, who along with Ishan Kishan was not considered for the previous contracts cycle for skipping domestic cricket, is set to be re-inducted in the list. Shreyas was one of the pillars of India’s recent Champions Trophy success. It will be interesting to see his bracket, considering he is a certainty in only one of the three formats.
The BCCI is unlikely to revise retainership amounts from the previous cycle. For 2023-24, the BCCI had devised four categories. Cricketers in Grade A+ were paid Rs seven crore each, while those in Grade A, Grade B and Grade C were paid Rs. five crore, Rs. three crore and Rs. one crore, respectively from October 2023 till September 2024.
Published – March 28, 2025 05:58 pm IST
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