Raina Gets a Bump Up, Yuvraj, Rohit Down in BCCI’s Crorepati Cricketers Contract

The BCCI has played a smart card. It has downsized the number of players to be awarded an annual contract while it has made those on its list, the elite list that is, richer.

 India's top cricketers just became crorepatis. That is because the BCCI has decided to reward its cricketers on the Grade A by a huge hike in the annual retainer from Rs.60 lakh to a whopping Rs. one crore. And the recent beneficiary of this move has been Suresh Raina while the rest are the predictable lot.
 The only notable but predicted absentee has to be Yuvraj Singh. That is because there have been many questions raised about Yuvraj Singh's form and fitness amongst commitment thrown in. Although Yuvraj has responded with a double century in the Irani Trophy match, obviously the board is not convinced about Yuvraj's commitment and comeback post injuries. With Raina grabbing Yuvraj's position when the latter was laid low in Sri Lanka, the BCCI have decided to put their eggs in the younger basket.
  Rohit Sharma is another huge disappointment and his bump down is a further stab at his opportunities at the top rung. It is a disappointing matter because he was one of the hugely hyped talents when he burst on the scene with even Australian commentators touching upon Rohit Sharma's timing and technique which they felt could have translated into a good game for India in Test cricket. Rohit certainly leaves much to be desired if he is to fill in the shoes of some of the greats when they retire.
   By trimming the contracts basket from 41 cricketers to only twenty-four, the BCCI has decided to share the spoils only amongst the few.

 Here is the pay hike:
Grade A: Rs. 60 lakh to Rs. 1 crore ( In Indian Rupees )

               $135,594 to $225,990 ( in American dollars )
 Grade A: Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan 

Grade B:Rs 40 lakh to Rs. 50 lakh
             $90,396 to $112,995

Grade B: Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Virat Kohli, M Vijay, Pragyan Ojha 

Grade C:Rs. 25 lakhs   ( status quo remains )
              $56,498

Grade C: Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, R Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar