Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni ensured hefty paychecks for India teammates

NEW DELHI: Current India captain Virat Kohli and his predecessor MS Dhoni are the reasons behind the new pay structure announced by the BCCI recently. The duo put forth the suggestion during a meeting with the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) to look after the affairs of BCCI.

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As per the new pay structure, the players have been divided into three grades with a new category A+ being introduced. As per the upgraded contracts, players who fall under the A+ category will receive INR 7 crore per annum while those in A category will be paid INR 5 crore annually. Those in B and C category will get INR 3 crore and INR 1 crore respectively.

A report in ESPNcricinfo quoted head of CoA Vinod Rai as saying, "This suggestion originated from Virat and MS in the discussions. Their logic was this category would have only players featuring in all three formats, players who are in the top-10 rankings. They wanted a category of pure excellence where you perform and you are rewarded. And hence the players would not occupy a permanent slot in this category because if you don't perform then you slip down the order."

Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah are the five players who have been awarded the A+ contracts.

The idea originated from former India coach Anil Kumble who had proposed a hike in players' salaries. He, along with Kohli, had asked BCCI to increase the amount by 150% which would have taken the earnings of players falling in the top category to INR 5 crore.

Rai further revealed that finalising which player will fall under what category was a decision that was taken by the national selectors. It has also been reported that the senior players and current head coach Ravi Shastri wanted those who don't feature across the three formats including Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara [who also isn't part of any IPL franchise] to have comparable income to that of top-category players. "They said we don't care how much money they get as long as the middle-level players are paid handsomely," Rai said.