BCCI reveals truth behind Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma’s ‘demotion’ in central contracts list: ‘Someone like a Bumrah…’

Here's what the BCCI official had to say about Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma being demoted in the central contracts list.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are gearing up to streamline the men's central contracts list, and it is more than likely that the A+ category would be done away with. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who were placed in this highest category in the last list, are likely to be ‘demoted’ to the B category, considering the duo are just one-format players now after their retirements from Tests and T20I formats. According to the existing policy, a men's cricketer in the A+ category gets INR 7 crore annually, while players in the A, B and C categories get INR 5 crore, INR 3 crore and INR 1 crore, respectively.

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma recently played the three ODIs against New Zealand. (PTI)

A BCCI official has finally come clean, saying Kohli and Rohit may not be in the highest category, and that the A+ category is being removed to streamline the list. The retainers for the 2025-26 season are yet to be announced, and it's more than likely that the players will now be bracketed into the A, B and C categories. In the previous cycle, Rohit, Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja were placed in the highest A category in the previous cycle.

“This is being done to simplify the contract structure. There are not many players who are part of all formats,” news agency PTI quoted a BCCI official as saying.

"Someone like Bumrah, who remains one of the few all-format players, will continue to be placed in the highest category and there would be no pay cut," the official added.

Now, only Bumrah is an all-format player, and he's likely to be positioned in the A category alongside the Test and ODI captain, Shubman Gill. The central contracts list is expected to be ratified in the next Apex Council Meeting.

However, it is not known what amount Kohli and Rohit are likely to get annually if they are placed in the B category. The players in the rejigged A category are expected to receive INR 7 crore annually.

What about the previous list?

In the previous central contracts list, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar were placed in B category while Washington was in C. The set to be removed, the A+ category, was introduced eight years ago, when the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators governed the BCCI.

Speaking of Rohit and Kohli, the duo most recently featured in the three-match ODI series against New Zealand, which India lost 1-2. Kohli scored 240 runs, including one century and one fifty while Rohit endured an underwhelming series, scoring just 61 runs in three games.