BCCI Central Contracts 2024–25: Rohit and Kohli Retain Top Grade; Iyer and Kishan Return After Previous Omission

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released its yearly central contracts for the men's cricket team for the season 2024–25 on Monday, with legendary players Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retaining their prized A+ grade contracts — even after their recent retirement from the format of the T20 Internationals.

The A+ level, the highest in the BCCI contract hierarchy, has an annual retainership of ₹7 crore apart from match fees and incentives for performance. Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah, who has also retired from T20Is, are still part of this category.

Return for Iyer and Kishan
Among the key changes, middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer and wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan have been included in the central contracts list once again after being left out last year. Iyer has been put in Grade B, whereas Kishan is in Grade C.

They were left out last year because they did not play domestic cricket, a requirement that the BCCI has highlighted to ensure a healthy domestic setup.

Pant Promoted, Ashwin Dropped
With Ravichandran Ashwin's retirement from international cricket this year, the Grade A list now includes Rishabh Pant, who has been promoted from Grade B last season. The other A-grade players stay the same.

New Faces and Omissions
The board has included some new faces in the Grade C category, some of them being emerging stars:

Nitish Kumar Reddy
Dhruv Jurel
Abhishek Sharma
Sarfaraz Khan
Akash Deep
Varun Chakravarthy
Harshit Rana

But a few of last season's C category players, including Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma, KS Bharat, and Avesh Khan, have not received contracts this season.

Full List of BCCI Central Contracts for 2024–25
(Effective from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025)

Grade A+ (₹7 crore)