NEW DELHI: Seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been handed a Grade A contract by the BCCI for the 2014-15 season, a promotion from the Grade B contract he had last season. He joins MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and R Ashwin in the top level.
Mohammed Shami, Ambati Rayudu and Ajinkya Rahane have been promoted from Grade C to Grade B, while Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthik and Jaydev Unadkat have been dropped from the contracts list.
There are several players who did not have contracts last year but have been included in Grade C this time, including Varun Aaron, Stuart Binny, Pankaj Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Parvez Rasool, Akshar Patel, Robin Uthappa, Manoj Tiwari, Karn Sharma, Sanju Samson, Kuldeep Yadav and KL Rahul.
Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma have been retained in Grade B, while Amit Mishra, Wriddhiman Saha, Vinay Kumar and Mohit Sharma remain in Grade C.
The only players in India’s 30-man probables list for the 2015 World Cup who had not made it to the contracts list are batsmen Manish Pandey and Kedhar Jadhav, and fast bowler Ashok Dinda.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Naman Ojha, who was called up to the India Test team as injury cover for Saha and Dhoni during the series in England earlier this year and the ongoing series in Australia, has not been given a contract.
The BCCI statement did not specify how much the players will be paid under the fresh contracts.
Last season, a Grade A contract came with an annual retainer of Rs 10m for Grade A players (US$ 158,000 approx), Rs 5m for Grade B players (US$ 79,000 approx), and Rs 2.5m for Grade C players (US$ 39,000 approx). Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh have been dropped. AGENCIES
