On Wednesday, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released the payment grade of the players. The match fees for Tests, One Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 Internationals were also hiked. The Match Fee enhancement for men cricketers will be effective from Oct 1st 2016 onwards and Rs 15 lakhs per Test, Rs 6 lakhs per ODI and Rs 3 lakhs for T20 International will be paid.

BCCI stated, "Grade A players will now be paid Rs 2 crore per annum, Grade B will be paid Rs 1 crore per annum and the Grade C players will get Rs 50 lakhs per annum, which is double the amounts paid in the earlier years."

The Annual Retainer amounts were enhanced for all the categories and is double the amounts paid in the earlier years.

Ravindra Jadega, Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay promoted to Grade A and joined Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane. KL Rahul and Wriddhiman Saha, who were in Grade C last year, have been promoted to Grade B, while top-order batsman Shikhar Dhawan has been demoted to Grade C following his poor form in international cricket.

Grade A Players (Rs 2 crore per annum): Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and Murali Vijay.

Grade B Players (Rs 1 Crore per annum): Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, Jasprit Bumrah and Yuvraj Singh.

Grade C Players (Rs 50 lakhs per annum): Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, Ashish Nehra, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur and Rishabh Pant.