BCCI demotes Yuvraj Singh; Suresh Raina in grade A of central contracts

Mumbai : Out of form batsman Yuvraj Singh was demoted to grade B while Suresh Raina was awarded for his good form with a grade A contract by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) here on Thursday.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag have been retained in Grade A along with other senior players like Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman and Gautam Gambhir.

Test opener Murli Vijay was also promoted Grade B from his Grade D entitlement last season. Pragyan Ojha is also in Grade B along with Virat Kohli who was also in Grade D.

The BCCI also increased the amount for Grade A players significantly as they will now get paid Rs 1 crore as compared to Rs 60 lakh last season.

There has been a nominal hike of Rs 10 lakh for Grade B players who will now be paid Rs 50 lakh, while Grade C players will continue to get paid Rs 25 lakh. The Board removed Grade D which existed last season.

Last year the Board gave central contracts to 44 players, but this time it has been trimmed to just 24. R.P. Singh, S Badrinath and Dinesh Karthik are out of the contracts lists as they are out of favour too.

Fringe players like Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary, Shikhar Dhawan, who continue to do well in the domestic circuit without much recognition for their efforts, also missed out.

Each player in the playing XI will get Rs 7 lakh per Test, Rs 4 lakh per ODI and Rs 2 lakh per T20.

Grade A (Rs. 1 Crore): Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan.

Grade B (Rs. 50 lakhs): Yuvraj Singh, Ishant Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Virat Kohli, M Vijay, Pragyan Ojha.

Grade C (Rs. 25 lakhs): S Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, R Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar.