BCCI Central Players Contract 2017: Jadeja, Pujara, Vijay promoted to Grade A; Raina, Harbhajan left out

BCCI's Committee of Administrators on Wednesday announced annual men players’ contracts for 2017.

Senior players like Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Ashwin have been retained in Grade A with annual amount of Rs 2 crore whereas injured Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami made it to Grade B. Yuvraj Singh retains his place in Grade B. The Grade B players have been awarded a retainer fee of Rs 1 crore.

Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara and M Vijay have been included in the Grade A category of annual contracts announced by the BCCI on Wednesday. Seasoned campaigners like Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh were the notable exclusions from this year's annual contract.

The COA also decided to increase the match fees of Test cricketers to Rs 15 lakh, ODI to Rs 6 lakh and T20I to Rs 3 lakh. "The Match Fee enhancement for men cricketers will be effective from October 1st 2016 onwards and Rs 15 lakhs per Test, Rs 6 lakhs per ODI and Rs 3 lakhs for T20 International will be paid," BCCI stated.

Seasoned opener Shikar Dhawan who has struggled for runs in the past season was demoted to Grade C from Grade B.Meanwhile emerging stars Yuzvendra Chahal, Jayant Yadav Shardul Thakur and Rishabh Pant made the cut to the contract list for the first time.

Here is the complete list of annual contracts handed for 2017

Grade A: Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, M Vijay

Grade B: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuvraj Singh

Grade C: Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, Ashish Nehra, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur, Rishabh Pant