BCCI Player Contracts: Shikhar Dhawan Gets 1300 Per Cent Hike, Virat Kohli 250 Per Cent

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced a new contract system and compensation structure for Indian cricket that will see the cricketers earn a lot more than what they used to in previous years. The biggest winners from the newly-announced list were India skipper Virat Kohli and opener Shikhar Dhawan. Kohli received a pay hike of 250 per cent while Dhawan got a mindboggling 1300 per cent hike. Dhawan was upgraded from last year's Grade C to a newly-introduced Grade A+. Former India captain MS Dhoni was relegated to the second tier, Grade A. Despite the grade-wise demotion, Dhoni will get a significant hike of 150 per cent.

Kohli along with Rohit Sharma, Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah were awarded the new A+ contract announced by the BCCI.

Significantly, Mohammed Shami, whose wife Hasin Jahan has accused him of torture and cheating, does not feature in any of the categories.

BCCI has given Grade A contracts to seven players. Apart from Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Wriddhiman Saha are in Grade A.

Even the low-profile Saha gets a 500 per cent hike.

The players in Grade A+ will be paid Rs. 7 crore each, while Rs. 5 crore will be paid to the Grade A players.

"The CoA was of the view that the performance and position of Indian Cricket needs to be recognised with the fee structure comparable to the best in the world," BCCI release said.

KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma and Dinesh Karthik have been awarded Grade B contracts. These players will be paid Rs. 3 crore each.

The players who are in Grade C include Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel and Jayant Yadav. These players will be paid Rs. 1 crore each.

Last year, the contracts were divided into three categories, A, B and C. Grade A players received 2 crore rupees, Grade B received 1 crore rupees and Grade C got 50 lakh rupees. This year saw a significant jump in all the three categories monetary-wise. The new grading system saw Grade A+ players receive 7 crore rupees, Grade A players get 5 crore rupees, Grade B get 3 crore rupees and Grade C players will take home a crore rupees each.