XtraTime Web Desk: India’s star opener Shikhar Dhawan has been left out from the top most category of the latest Central Contract list for Indian cricketers, and young sensation Rishabh Pant has got a reward of A category.
There are only three players who are in A+ category and they are- skipper Virat Kohli, his limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.
The likes of Murali Vijay, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Parthiv Patel and Jayant Yadav who all had contracts last year have been left out, while Khaleel Ahmed and Hanuma Vihari have been included in the Grade C contract.
Dhawan, who is no longer a part of the Test set-up and had a poor last three months in limited overs format, has been demoted from A+ to A category. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has also fallen off the radar as an all format player, is also not in the elite list.
The A plus category players get a yearly retainer fee of Rs 7 crore, while A category players get Rs 5 crore.
Pant has been rewarded for his good show in Test cricket and has jumped directly into A group after being ignored last year. He has been rewarded for his hundreds in England and Australia and he is ready to take on the mantle from Mahendra Singh Dhoni once he retires from limited overs.
Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami are the other players who have been promoted from Grade B to A. Meanwhile, Wriddhiman Saha, who hasn’t played for India since January 2018 because of an injury, has been given Grade C contract.
Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul continue to remain in the B category. Comeback man Ambati Rayudu too finds his name in the Grade C list.
Cheteshwar Pujara despite his stupendous show in Australia remained in A category since he is only one format player.
The contracts, which run from October 1, 2018, to September 30, 2019, were approved by the Committee of Administrators on Thursday in Delhi.
The contracts, which run from October 1, 2018, to September 30, 2019, were approved by the Committee of Administrators on Thursday in Delhi.
Grade A+ (INR 7 crore): Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
Grade A (INR 5 crore): R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, Shikhar Dhawan, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant
Grade B (INR 3 crore): KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya
Grade C (INR 1 crore): Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Khaleel Ahmed, Wriddhiman Saha
Women’s cricket
Having retired from T20Is, Jhulan Goswami has been moved to Grade B from A. Meanwhile, Poonam Yadav has earned herself a Grade A contract.
Jemimah Rodrigues too has been promoted to Grade B.
While Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy and D Hemalatha have been included in the Grade C list for the first time, Sushma Verma and Nuzhat Parveen are the ones to miss out.
Grade A (INR 50 lakhs): Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Poonam Yadav
Grade B (INR 30 lakhs): Ekta Bisht, Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey, Deepti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues
Grade C (INR 10 lakhs): Radha Yadav, D Hemalatha, Anuja Patil, Veda Krishnamurthy, Mansi Joshi, Punam Raut, Mona Meshram, Arundhati Reddy, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Taniya Bhatia, Pooja Vastrakar