New Delhi, Feb. 11 -- Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, expected to be removed from BCCI's top A+ bracket in the central contracts, were on Monday downgraded to Group B. It is a reflection of the two former all-format stalwarts now playing only ODIs. BCCI, in fact, removed the A+ category that fetches players a retainership sum of Rs.7 crore. The BCCI announced awarding central contracts to 30 men and 21 women cricketers across Groups A, B and C. Performances and volume of games played in the preceding season is the basis for the slotting of the players. In men's cricket, Test and ODI skipper Shubman Gill, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja have been retained in Group A. The BCCI release does not mention the retainership fees for each category, but Group A was worth Rs.5 crore, Group B Rs.3 crore and Group C Rs.1 crore in the previous contracts. It is understood that A+ was a gradation that was introduced by the erstwhile Committee of Administrators (COA) at the behest of former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Only the four all-format players - Kohli, Rohit, Jadeja and Bumrah - qualified in that category. But, with three of them retiring from one or more formats, BCCI didn't want to keep only Bumrah in A+. Gill has been dropped from the T20 side, after failing to find a place in the World Cup squad. However, Bumrah is still an all-format player. Rohit and Kohli retired from T20 Internationals following the 2024 World Cup win. Kohli retired from Tests ahead of the tour of England last summer and Rohit followed suit. KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, T20 skipper Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya are also in Group B with the two senior players. Pacer Arshdeep Singh and star T20 opener Abhishek Sharma are both in the 16-player Group C. During the last cycle, 34 players were awarded contracts, which has been pruned by four. Seasoned pacer Mohammed Shami, who has not been picked for India since the 2023 World Cup, keeper-batter Ishan Kishan, who has returned to the national side after two years for the T20 World Cup, pacer Mukesh Kumar and batter Sarfaraz Khan, who was dropped after the 2024-25 Australia tour, don't feature in the list. The four did not play any international game across formats during the period in consideration. Among the 30 names, only three are in Grade A, while 11 are listed in Grade B and 16 in grade C. Allrounder Axar Patel, a regular in the white-ball teams and has also been in the Test squad, has been surprisingly relegated to Group C with single format players. In the contract for women cricket, upgrading Jemimah Rodrigues to Group A from Group B in the wake of her brilliant performance in the ODI World Cup victory is the big move. Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and allrounder Deepti Sharma have retained their top billing. Rodgrigues made a massive contribution during India's World Cup campaign last year by scoring a match-winning hundred to eliminate defending champions Australia in the semi-final. Off-spinner Sneh Rana has been promoted to Group B which also has Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh and Renuka Singh. There are 13 players in Group C, which includes opener Prathika Rawal, who was a picture of consistency in the ODI World Cup until she was injured and missed the final. The women's central contract retainership fees are Rs.50 lakh, Rs.30 lakh and Rs.10 lakh respectively. The contract runs from October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026....