Rishabh Pant gets BCCI central contract worth 5 crore, Shikhar Dhawan dropped from top category
Young sensation Rishabh Pant was on Thursday rewarded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for his good show in international cricket.
Pant, the wicketkeeper-batsman, was included into BCCI's annual retainers list after being ignored last year. Pant has been placed in Category A, worth INR 5 crore, for the season 2018-19.
Pant has been rewarded for his hundreds in England and Australia and he is ready to take on the mantle from Mahendra Singh Dhoni once he retires from limited overs.
Meanwhile, the elite list of Category A+ (worth INR 7 crore) includes only three players - skipper Virat Kohli, his limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma and pacer Jasprit Bumrah.
The players part of Category A+ get a yearly retainer fee of INR 7 crore, while Category A players get richer by INR 5 crore. Category B carries a retainership value of INR 3 crore and Category C is worth INR 1 crore.
Senior opener Shikhar Dhawan has been dropped from the topmost Category A+ and has been shifted to Category A.
Dhawan is no longer a part of the Test set-up and had a poor last three months in limited overs format.
Along with Dhawan, seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has also fallen off the radar as an all-format player, is also part of Category A.
Cheteshwar Pujara, despite his stupendous show in Australia, remained in Category A since he is only one format player.
Other players in Category A are R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav.
On the other hand, Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul continue to remain in Category B, along with Umesh Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Meanwhile, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Khaleel Ahmed and Wriddhiman Saha are part of Category C
