Among the many demands that Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri have voiced in their tenure, is the cry for better salaries for Indian cricketers.

Today, the Committee of Administrators, along with the BCCI, has obliged.

In an official mail sent out, the CoA has announced a drastic increase in the annual contracts of members of the Indian cricket team, along with an all new category — the A . Players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, are all part of the new A category, and are now slated to earn a massive Rs 7 crore a year.

The earlier highest grade for players, the A grade, used to fetch Rs 2 crore a year.

Former India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara and senior spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have all been relegated from the top-paid bracket from last March and now see themselves in the second grade of players.

The annual contracts are for the period from October 2017 to September 2018.

Indian Cricket Team’s New Salaries

A Grade – Rs 7 Crore a Year
Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah

A Grade – Rs 5 Crore a Year
Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, Wridhhiman Saha

B Grade – Rs 3 Crore a Year
KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Dinesh Karthik

C Grade – Rs 1 Crore a Year
Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav

Among the women, World Cup stars Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana have been kept in the top bracket, under which the annual contract is worth Rs 50 lakh.

"The CoA recognises that the actual income of the BCCI fluctuates on an annual basis depending on the number of home matches Team India (Senior Men) plays.

"Hence, to insulate the player compensation, the CoA has sanctioned the creation of a 'Players Revenue/Compensation Equalisation Fund' (PR/CEF) to which the BCCI will contribute approximately Rs 125 crore per annum from its surplus," the BCCI statement read.