The Committee of Administrators (CoA) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the central contracts for the Indian men and women players. The annual player contracts are for season 2018-19 (from October 2018 to September 2019).
Rishabh Pant has earned a Grade A contract while he missed out on a contract last year. The wicketkeeper put in some impressive performances in the last year and as a result, earned a contract. Murali Vijay has been left out of the central contracts after his poor run in international cricket which saw him being dropped from the Test side.
Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav have been promoted from Grade B to A. Ambati Rayudu has been given a Grade C contract after he missed out last year. Others to earn a Grade C contract for the first time are Khaleel Ahmed and Hanuma Vihari.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shikhar Dhawan have been demoted from A+ to A. Dinesh Karthik, now finds himself in Grade C after getting a grade demotion. Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Parthiv Patel and Jayant Yadav have been left out of the current cycle.
Amongst the women’s cricketers, Poonam Yadav gets a promotion to Grade A. Jemimah Rodrigues moves up to B. Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy and D Hemalatha have been given a Grade C contract for the first time.
Jhulan Goswami, who retired from T20Is, has been shifted to Grade B from A. Veda Krishnamurthy and Rajeshwari Gaekwad have dropped from Grade B to C. Also, Sushma Verma and Nuzhat Parveen were left out of the list of centrally contracted players.
Central contracts for Indian Men’s cricket team
Grade A+ (INR 7 Cr): Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
Grade A (INR 5 Cr): 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 Cr): KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya
Grade C (INR 1 Cr): Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Hanuma Vihari, Khaleel Ahmed, Wriddhiman Saha
Central contracts for Indian Women’s cricket team
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
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