Shami left out of BCCI annual contracts, Dhawan jumps to A+

Mumbai, March 7 - Seamer Mohammed Shami found himself out of the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) 26-member annual contracts system, which saw the addition of a new category.

Shami's removal may be a coincidence with the ongoing controversy involving his wife, who accused the Bengal pacer, who was in the B category in the last term, of domestic violence and extra-marital affairs.

Also out of the contracts are Yuvraj Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Shardul Thakur, Rishabh Pant and Mandeep Singh, while Suresh Raina returned and features in the C category, earning Rs 1 crore.

The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) for BCCI announced that the contracts run from October 2017 to September 2018.

"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," a release said.

The new category, termed A+, includes captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar -- all of them entitled to an annual pay of Rs 7 crore -- an increase of Rs 5 crore for the top bracket. Delhi left-handed opening batsman Dhawan has seen a meteoric rise as he was in the C category last year.

Former captain and talismanic wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was placed in the A category and will take home Rs 5 crore per annum.

Apart from Dhoni, experienced spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wridhhiman Saha -- all Test regulars -- are also in the A category.

The likes of Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav are in the B category, under which the players will take Rs 3 crore. Yuzvendra Chahal has jumped a category to be in B.

Karun Nair, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav remain in the C category.

Meanwhile, 19 women cricketers have been given contracts across three categories. In the A category, Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana will get Rs 50 lakh each per year.

The players in the B category will get Rs 30 lakh. A new C category has been declared, with the players in this category standing to earn Rs 10 lakh per year.

The likes of Veda Krishnamurthy, Deepti Sharma, Poonam Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Ekta Bisht and Rajeshwari Gayakwad are in the B category.

Sushma Verma, Punam Raut and teenager Jemimah Rodrigues are in the C category.

The BCCI also sanctioned the creation of a Players Revenue / Compensation Equalization Fund" (PR/CEF) to which it will contribute approximately Rs 125 crore per annum from its surplus in order to insulate the player compensation as the income of the board fluctuates on an annual basis depending on the number of home matches Team India (senior men) plays.

IANS