5 Cricketers who were demoted in BCCI's latest central contract

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are yet to officially announce the latest annual central contracts. The BCCI central contract included four categories- A+, A, B, and C. The grade A+ category is superior to all where the players receive INR 7 crore, Grade A players get INR 5 Cr while the players in grades B and C are paid three and one crore respectively.

While the likes of batting megastar Virat Kohli, India’s newly appointed all-format captain Rohit Sharma and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah featuring in the A+ category was a no-brainer given the fact that they play all three formats of the game, there have been a few players who have been demoted in this category. Without further ado, here’s a look at five of them with a couple of them being surprise names in the list.

Players who were demoted in BCCI in central contracts:

1. Ajinkya Rahane

The last few months have indeed been very tough for Ajinkya Rahane. He was sacked from India’s Test vice-captaincy prior to the South Africa series in December and also had a forgettable tour managing just 136 runs averaging 22.66 in the three-match series including a half-century.

Due to his underwhelming returns after a match-winning century at the Boxing Day Test match in MCG in December 2020, the selectors decided to drop Rahane from the upcoming Sri Lanka Test series. Therefore, it also earned him a demotion in the BCCI Central Contracts.

The senior batter who was in the A category last year is now in B category and he would be hoping to make a spectacular comeback with some exceptional performances in the ongoing Ranji Trophy where he has already scored a century and a half-century in three innings for Mumbai.