The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) awards annual contracts to selected Indian players. As per the BCCI annual contract different players are awarded duly as per the grading system. There is an A+ bracket, A-grade category, B category, and C category. Players awarded an A+ contract draw an annual compensation of ₹7 crores. While those in the A grade bracket draw an annual salary of ₹5 crores. Players who are awarded a B category contract draw a compensation of ₹3 crores annually while the players in the last bracket (C category) are handed over an annual compensation of ₹1 crore.
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BCCI Annual Retention Fee System:
There are only 3 Indian cricketers currently who fall in the A+ grade of the BCCI annual player retention list. Jasprit Bumrah along with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are the only 3 players who fall in the top bracket. This helps each of them draw a hefty salary of ₹7 crores annually. Apart from the annual retention fee, the BCCI also pays all its players for representing the Indian team in different formats. The BCCI pays ₹15 lakhs to a player for a Test Match, ₹6 lakhs for playing an ODI while the board pays cricketers ₹3 lakhs for playing a T20I.
Jasprit Bumrah tops the list:
Jasprit Bumrah, India’s pace spearhead had a very busy 2020 and this translates into his earnings for the year. Bumrah played a total of 21 matches for India across formats in 2020. He played 4 Test Matches, 9 ODI’s, and 8 T20I’s in the calendar year. Owing to such a heavy workload, Bumrah mustered ₹1.38 crores as his playing fees in 2020. Kohli on the other hand represented India in 22 international games across formats (Kohli played 3 Tests, 9 ODI’s, and 10 T20I’s). But he played less than Bumrah and hence finds himself in the 2nd spot. He thereby earned ₹1.29 crores from BCCI.
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Rohit Sharma missed out:
Allrounder, Ravindra Jadeja narrowly missed out on the ₹1 crore mark as he could not play the first Test against Australia and he even missed a couple of T20I’s against them. He played a total of 2 Tests, 9 ODI’s, and 4 T20I’s in 2020. Jadeja earned a total of ₹96 lakhs from the BCCI as match fees in 2020. Rohit Sharma who had to miss the majority of the season owing to injury could only play in 3 ODI’s and 4 T20I’s in 2020. Owing to this, Sharma doesn’t figure in the top 5 highest-paid players as per match fees in 2020.
