Ravindra Jadeja's name was discussed for Grade A+ contract but didn't get approved: BCCI insiders

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently released the annual contract list for its players. There were some new faces on the list, with the likes of Mohammad Siraj and Shubman Gill making their way in. For some, there was a promotion like Hardik Pandya, who received a promotion from Grade B to Grade A. 

Ravindra Jadeja retained his Grade A contract which guarantees an annual salary of INR 5 crores from BCCI. However, sources now have revealed that there were talks to give Jadeja a promotion from Grade A to Grade A+. At the current moment, only three players, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, and captain Virat Kohli are in the A+ category. 

The trio has an annual salary of INR 7 crores and has attained that because they play in all three formats for India. The top category is for players who play in the starting XI for India in all three formats and Jadeja has become one of those players more recently for India. According to the report on Cricbuzz, the BCCI insiders have revealed that the Saurashtra all-rounder was initially considered for the A+ category but the board decided not to give him a raise eventually.

Speculation why Ravindra Jadeja missed out on a bump from Grade A to A+

The top category players are also chosen based on their ICC rankings. Ravindra Jadeja is in the top 10 ICC all-rounders ranking in both Test and ODIs. In fact, he is ranked no.3 in Test cricket, just behind Ben Stokes and Jason Holder. The report didn’t say why exactly the decision of giving Jadeja a promotion was reversed. 

However, there is speculation that in the past six months, the all-rounder has not played a lot of international cricket as his injuries kept him out of the action. He missed the entire England tour of India and had also missed fractions of the Australian tour. Former chief selector of Indian cricket, MSK Prasad also shed his views on this matter. 

“Jadeja is a genuine A+ candidate. Those who play all formats and have good ICC rankings are included in the list. I cannot see any reason why he was not considered for A + Grade,” Prasad told Cricbuzz.

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