BCCI awards Grade A contract to Rishabh Pant; Murali Vijay kept out of contract list

Pant has been awarded the central contract under A category for his recent performance across formats in international cricket. Bowlers Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav have also been rewarded for the efforts that they have put in as they have been promoted to Grade A from Grade B by the committee. On the other hand, senior wicketkeepers Wriddhiman Saha and Dinesh Karthik have moved down on the list as they will now find their name in Grade C.

Ambati Rayudu, who didn’t have a contract in the previous one, has been drafted in the C category along with 2018 debutants Khaleel Ahmed and Hanuma Vihari. Players like Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Parthiv Patel and Jayant Yadav have now been removed from the list of cricketers having a central contract under the BCCI. 

Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah are the only players in the A+ category while players like MS Dhoni, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane continue to remain in Grade A. 

In women’s cricket, pacer Jhulan Goswami has been relegated to Grade B while Poonam Yadav has been given a Grade A contract. Batter Jemimah Rodrigues has also taken an upward leap to join others in Grade B while Veda Krihnamurthy and Rajeshwari Gaekwad will go down to Grade C in this cycle.

All-rounders Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy and D Hemalatha are placed in Grade C for the first time under BCCI contract while Sushma Verma and Nuzhat Parveen are not a part of the new list of women cricketers. 

Men’s Contracts

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

Women's Contracts

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