Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni ensured pay hike for the Indian players, reveals Vinod Rai

Over the past few days, the biggest news that has been doing rounds in the Indian cricket is the newly announced pay structure for the Indian players. As per the new pay structure, the players have been divided into four grades with a new category A+ being introduced. The A+ category will receive 7 crores, while the categories A, B and C will now get 5 crores, 3 crores and 1 crore respectively. Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Jasprit Bumrah are the five players who have been awarded the A+ contracts.

According to a report in ESPNCricinfo, Vinod Rai revealed that Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni were the main reasons behind the pay hike. He admitted that their logic of having A+ category was that it should feature players featuring in all formats and those players who are performing consistently. 

“This suggestion originated from Virat and MS in the discussions. Their logic was this category would have only players featuring in all three formats, players who are in the top-10 rankings. They wanted a category of pure excellence where you perform and you are rewarded. And hence the players would not occupy a permanent slot in this category because if you don't perform then you slip down the order,” the CoA head revealed. 

The idea of the pay hike was originally initiated by Anil Kumble. He along with Kohli had proposed the idea of increasing the amount (of players) by 150% which would have taken the earnings of players falling in the top category to INR 5 crore.

Rai further revealed that finalising which player will fall under what category was a decision that was taken by the national selectors. The 69-year old CoA chief also admitted that the senior players and coach Ravi Shastri wanted players who play only one format (Test specialists in particular) to get hefty paychecks. 

"They said we don't care how much money they get as long as the middle-level players are paid handsomely," Rai added.