BCCI's list of annual central contract for 2010-11

[Clarke]

So are you saying GRADE A list is only for test performers? Odi and T20s do not count?

Tests are most important, that's clear from the listing. All forms of cricket count, but Tests > Odi > T20s as per BCCI and i will not disagree on that.

Yuvraj has been Indias top performer in odis for quite some years and he won India the only T20 worldcup...

in 2007. This being an annual affair, shall we consider the year that passed far more important than earlier achievements ?

and if tests are the only criteria with which people get into GRADE A. What is Raina doing in there with only 5 tests? what is dhoni doing there? Gambhirs performance over the last year? Dravid?

If you follow BCCI's philosophy of importance to tests, Gambhir's contribution to India's rise in Tests has been far more than Yuvraj ever will contribute to that format. Unlike Yuvi, he's been good in ODIs in the last 12 months. Dhoni is wicketkeeper+captain and avg batsman in tests/good batsman in odis, don't expect him to score like Sachin/Sehwag for Grade A. The wicketkeeping+captaincy in all formats alone guarantees Grade A presence. Raina has outperformed Yuvi in all formats in the last 12 months, period. Raina's 5 tests is too less for Yuvi's 6 for the last 12 months ? This is an annual grading after all. Dravid's place in Grade A seems to indicate the importance BCCI gives to Tests. A big fan of his, i wouldn't cry foul like any of Yuvi's supporters here if he were in Grade B. That's because i know his runs earlier as well as in the last 12 months (avg of 55+) talk for themselves and do not need a grading system.

It doesnt make sense. This is no way to treat a senior player who has been playing for 10 years. To put him in the same list as M Vijay is disgraceful. Its not about 50 lakhs. Its about insult and also you will lose a lot more money from sponsorships...In crores that is.

Uff .. money he shall make, loads of it. Trust me on this, the thrashing Yuvi is capable of handing out in T20s and Odis will earn him much more than test superstars Dravid & Zak. Whether its 10 or 50 crores is not my concern. People have to realize, they shrunk the # of contracted players from 41 to 24 and a lot of players lost their earlier grade. This is an annual thing, it is not a verdict on overall career performance. Yuvi has to let the bat do the talking and he'll be back in Grade A.

[Ranjha]

So could you please tell me why Yuvraj was in Grade A for past years since he never contributed in tests before? Did Bcci suddenly change the policy this year that only test performers can e in Grade A...If it was crystal clear to everyone that Grade A contracts are only for test players, I wouldn't be arguing.

[pensionplan]

One other way to look at it is Yuvraj's stock dropping where as in the past he was looked upon as a wanted commodity even though he never got an extended run in Tests when Ganguly was still part of the team. Now that Raina and Pujara have established ahead of Yuvraj in Tests he is not viewed upon as someone premier. I kind of agree with that. He has a long road ahead of him to get back to the Test fold where as in the past he was kind of looked upon as the next in line if any of the fab four have gone down or retired. The 'B' grade demotion is a wake up call and things can get worse for him unless he does really really well in the WC and it also depends on how far India goes. This can all fall apart for YS unless he is very focused. The 'B' grade contract is not as bad actually as it is made out to be frankly speaking.

[pensionplan]

Also there is no point bringing in Dravid. Till he retires he will be 'A' grade along with Tendulkar and Laxman. Simple as that. These guys are an asset and legends in every sense of it and as long as they are there it is a big thank-you for all they have done for Indian cricket and more recently their efforts over the years resulted in its culmination in India topping the ICC Test ratings and No.1 Test side.

[Clarke]

Ranjha, it seems to me (there's no offical rule book for BCCI grading) that Tests seem more important than other formats. This is different from test only grading. Yuvraj's contributions were top notch in odis/T20s and acceptable in tests earlier, which certainly cannot be said for the last year. Why are you ignoring the fact that there was a 40% reduction in contracted players and hence some leveling has happened. Those at the boundary were knocked off into the lower group & Yuvi hence is in Grade B. If they had maybe 30-35 players instead of 24, he might have made it to Grade A. Now that's my logical assumption and not a certainty. Again, this has far less importance to who's playing in SA or other games. The selectors will not have a quota system which is based on the grades of the players. Yuvi shall certainly play odis and T20s against NZ/SA and maybe tests soon. Isn't that good enough ?

[pensionplan]

does this mean that BCCI has now given up on guys like munaf, pathan brothers, rp singh, dinesh karthik, badrinath and uthappa.:((

Actually if you look at it and read the fine print it is clearly mentioned if any one outside those chosen for contracts gets selected they will automatically be offered a pro-rated 'C' grade contract for the rest of the year and it kind of makes sense. So it is more of an incentive and a challenge to those who really think they deserved the contract to perform out of their skins get selected for the Indian team and the 'C' grade contract is theirs. 24 players getting a contract is decent enough and the committee did a great job in identifying the best 24 they could. There will always be a debate or two about 2-3 spots but that is no biggie.

[coffee_rules]

Comparing Ashwin with Mithun and VK :giggle:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/indiandomestic2010/engine/current/match/465422.html

[Ram]

They're trying everything they possibly could, to rile up Yuvraj before the world cup. First they dropped him from the test squad, now comes this blow. From a financial perspective, everyone knows the grade of the contract makes little difference to our top players. But it does make a big difference, from a prestige perspective and our selectors are trying all possible tricks to see if they can Yuvraj worked up.

[Ranjha]

Ranjha, it seems to me (there's no offical rule book for BCCI grading) that Tests seem more important than other formats. This is different from test only grading. Yuvraj's contributions were top notch in odis/T20s and acceptable in tests earlier, which certainly cannot be said for the last year. Why are you ignoring the fact that there was a 40% reduction in contracted players and hence some leveling has happened. Those at the boundary were knocked off into the lower group & Yuvi hence is in Grade B. If they had maybe 30-35 players instead of 24, he might have made it to Grade A. Now that's my logical assumption and not a certainty. Again, this has far less importance to who's playing in SA or other games. The selectors will not have a quota system which is based on the grades of the players. Yuvi shall certainly play odis and T20s against NZ/SA and maybe tests soon. Isn't that good enough ?

I don't have problem with Yuvi being given B contract. I just think the decision is incorrect since it is not a consistent one and some players have got lucky. But, I guess if he performs well, he will be back in A grade.

[Feed]

BCCI to give big bucks for Tests While revising the central contracts, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to do away with Grade D. The gradation committee comprising BCCI president Shashank Manohar, secretary N Srinivasan and chairman of national selection panel K Srikkanth met in Chennai on Thursday to announce the list of 24 players who will be under central contract. More... BCCI to give big bucks for Tests Amol Karhadkar, Hindustan Times Mumbai, November 12, 2010 While revising the central contracts, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to do away with Grade D. The gradation committee comprising BCCI president Shashank Manohar, secretary N Srinivasan and chairman of national selection panel K Srikkanth met in Chennai on Thursday to announce the list of 24 players who will be under central contract. Not only did they hike the players' annual retainer, they also offered a huge hike in match fees across all international formats. The BCCI, however, shrunk the list of contracted players by getting rid of Grade D, which was added in the last two contract cycles. While the 2008-09 contracts were offered to 38 players - 14 in Grade D in the 2009-10 cycle, the number had swollen to 41 with 17 players in Grade D. BCCI secretary N Srinivasan conceded that the BCCI wanted to put a premium to India contract. "We didn't want too many people," Srinivasan told HT from Chennai. "After all, to be a contracted player is a big thing, so we felt that one has to really perform to earn it." The BCCI president-elect, however, did not agree that they had committed a mistake by enlarging the contracted players' pool for the last two cycles. "I am not saying that those who are not there (now) did not earn it. All that I am saying is it's (contracted players') not an easy club to get into," said Srinivasan.

[Chandan]

So why was Grade D done away with? Different papers have given different views. According to Indian Express: After realising that some players were happy to sit back on laurels after bagging a Grade D contract, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) went back to the three-tier system, which now covers 24 cricketers, down from 41 last year. BCCI chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty said that the revised gradation was put into force to ensure that players earn central contracts. “In Australia not more than a dozen or so players have central contracts. The BCCI found that players, especially on the fringe, took their Grade D contract for granted. That is why we have scrapped them,” Shetty told The India Express on Thursday. The BCCI had introduced Grade D to reward domestic players. Those who lost out because of the revised contract system are Munaf Patel, RP Singh, Pathan brothers Irfan and Yusuf, Robin Uthappa, Mohd. Kaif, Dinesh Karthik, Sudeep Tyagi, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, among others. But Telegaraph has to say something else: While enhancing the retainership slabs in the three grades, the Gradation Committee has done away with Grade D, which had been introduced in 2008-09. “Grade D had a specific purpose — to prevent players from enrolling in the rebel Indian Cricket League... Now that the League is defunct, there’s no need to hold out even small carrots,” a senior BCCI official told The Telegraph. The official couldn’t have been more blunt. As many as 17 players had been accommodated in Grade D, in 2009-10, reducing the central contracts to somewhat of a farce. Whatever it is, quite a number of domestic performers have missed out on annual retainership: PROMOTED, DEMOTED, OUT OF THE LIST GRADE A (Rs 1 crore, up from Rs 60 lakh): Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S.Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Suresh Raina. Total: 9. Promoted: Raina; Demoted: Yuvraj Singh. GRADE B (Rs 50 lakh, up from Rs 40 lakh): Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli. Total: 7. Promoted: Ojha, Vijay, Kohli; ‘New’ face: Yuvraj; Demoted: Rohit Sharma; Out altogether: Rudra Pratap Singh, Munaf Patel. GRADE C (Rs 25 lakh): Amit Mishra, Sreesanth, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Abhimanyu Mithun, Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara. Total: 8. Debut as contracted player: Mithun, Vinay Kumar; Promoted: Jadeja, Ashwin, Pujara. ‘New face’: Rohit. Out altogether: Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Subramaniam Badrinath. ABOLISHED GRADE D: Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel, Mohammad Kaif, Ashok Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudeep Tyagi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary Note: According to the BCCI, if a non-contracted player is selected for Team India, then he “will be given a pro-rata contract in Grade C.” ------------------------------------------------------ One more important information: Restructured pay and share But how much the players will benefit from the revision is the moot point. According to the board’s policy, the players would have got this money anyway as they are entitled for the 13 per cent share of its income. As a BCCI official put it, “It is their (players’) money that is being disbursed.” On the face of it, the beneficiaries would be those contracted players who don’t get to play too many matches or no match at all for whatever reason. In that case, they would be assured of their retainerships — based on their grades, which is fixed at Rs1 crore for Grade A, Rs50 lakh for Grade B and Rs25 lakh for Grade C players. For the rest, the money earned is more than the sum of retainership and match fee. Point system Generally, the BCCI disburses players’ share basing on the points — three points for a Test and a point for an ODI — each player accumulates every year after deducting their match fee and retainership paid to them. One key feature of the point system is those who play more Tests end up earning more money as they accumulate more points. It means, Rahul Dravid, a Test specialist, would be earning more than an ODI specialist. Needless to say, players like MS Dhoni and Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, who are regulars in both formats, earn more as they accumulate more points. So are these 13% shared only among contracted players or among players who play only international cricket or every player of the country, including the Ranji players, U-22, etc players?

[girishk14]

So they dont have a single back up wicket-keeper in contract?

[achilles]

Jadeja's got a contract. Great days for Indian cricket.

[maniac]

Yuvi arrived as a future star with great potential when I was in my 12th standard...I completed my Graduation,My PG,have 5 years of work ex,Got married and after all these years one thing that didn't change was Yuvi is still a future star with great potential. It's high time he reflected on what he could have been and come back stronger

[Ram]

Find it hard to believe that someone like Saurabh Tiwary, who is without a shadow of doubt, the future middle star of Indian cricket, at least in ODIs and T20s, misses out on any contract, while someone like Vinay Kumar, who probably has very bleak future, as far any Indian team prospects go, gets one. And to say Sreesanth is in the category as guys like Mithun, Kumar is a joke. Clearly, he’s seems to be the no.2 pacemean for test cricket, at least if you go by the current team selection. But, if you hold the logic that someone like Praveen Kumar plays a lot more matches and hence gets grade B, then is why the same standard not being applied to VVS, who gets a grade A (which he absolutely should get and deserves 100%).

[cowboysfan]

if yuvraj doesn't perform in the world cup then i see him getting dropped from the odis too.there are too many young guys who are waiting in the wings.it will be a precipitous fall if it does happen.

[maniac]

Find it hard to believe that someone like Saurabh Tiwary, who is without a shadow of doubt, the future middle star of Indian cricket, at least in ODIs and T20s, misses out on any contract, while someone like Vinay Kumar, who probably has very bleak future, as far any Indian team prospects go, gets one.

Its more to do with being at the right place at the right time.Saurabh Tiwary has a lot of competition from many young batsman,he is more lost in the shuffle where as Mithun,Vinay despite being mediocre so far are among a limited options available. I agree on Sreeshanth though,Sree is a better bowler than PK and definetely deserves better.

[Ram]

Its more to do with being at the right place at the right time.Saurabh Tiwary has a lot of competition from many young batsman,he is more lost in the shuffle where as Mithun,Vinay despite being mediocre so far are among a limited options available.

You don’t give contracts based on ‘Oh, player A has so much competition versus player B has this much competition..’. You give to players by their own individual merit. If you hold the logic that the contracts system was based on the performance of the players in the last calendar year and Tiwary, even though he’s promising prospect, hasn’t really played much in the team, then why isn’t the same logic being applied to Vinay Kumar, who played all of a couple of ODIs and a T20 in the same time period? And Dinesh Karthik gets NO contract at all? FFS, this guy was our top-scorer in the final that we won against Sri Lanka less than 4-5 months ago. He wasn’t dropped because he was batting that poorly, he was dropped from the team because the seniors who he had replaced had recovered from their injuries and had comeback into the team. And what has Rohit Sharma done, that Dinesh Karthik hasn’t, to still have a contract, other than the near inconsequential 2 100s he scored in Zimbabwe? Again, I am not saying Rohit Sharma does not deserve a contract. I think he definitely does, but the standards are not uniformly applied.

[King Tendulkar]

No contract for any other keeper. Dhoni making sure he snuffs out the competition

[ZodiaC]

No contract for any other keeper. Dhoni making sure he snuffs out the competition

DK should have been handed a C grade contract IMO