BCCI Central Contracts: Rohit, Virat retained in top grade; Iyer, Kishan back
New Delhi(PTI): India's Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma and batting talisman Virat Kohli retained their place in the top category, while the out-of-favour duo of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan returned to the fold in lower brackets in a 34-strong list of contracted players released by the BCCI on Monday.
The A+ grade, which commands an annual retainership fee of Rs seven crore, also features Ravindra Jadeja and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah much like the last few years.
India's Champions trophy hero Iyer has been the notable comeback in the list, inducted in group B which comes with an annual remuneration of Rs three crore.
Iyer was dropped last season for allegedly ignoring domestic cricket for IPL. Wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan. dropped for the same reason, also made a comeback in category C, which is worth Rs one crore annually.
Rishabh Pant, who was demoted to group B during the 2023-24 season as he didn't play due to his recovery from a life-threatening accident, is back in A category in place of the retired Ravichandran Ashwin. Category A comes with a retainership of Rs five crore annually.
Category C features the maximum number of players, 19 in all, with four new entrants in Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Abhishek Sharma and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
BCCI central contracts list:
A+ category: Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja
A category: Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant
B category: Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer
C category: Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Rajat Patidar, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Akash Deep, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana.
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Had a very good conversation with friend Modi: Trump
Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump on Friday said he had a "very good conversation" with his "friend" Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He was referring to the talks the two leaders had on Tuesday.
"I had a very good talk with him, and he's a friend of mine from India, and he's doing great. We had a very good conversation," Trump told reporters here as he headed to Las Vegas to address a roundtable on tax cuts.
Trump had called Modi on Tuesday to discuss the bilateral relationship and share perspectives on the situation in West Asia, where the US and Israel have launched a war on Iran.
The US and Iran declared a two-week ceasefire on April 7. They engaged in peace talks with Washington, insisting that Tehran give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons and uranium enrichment.
The war with Iran has sent gas prices soaring as Tehran blocked the sea lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow gateway for a fifth of global oil supplies.
During the Trump-Modi phone call on Tuesday, the two leaders stressed the importance of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and secure.
According to the US Ambassador to India Sergei Gor, the 40-minute conversation ended with Trump telling Modi, "we all love you".
Tuesday's phone call was the second between the two leaders since the US-Israel war with Iran began on February 28.
