SEP 28: Contracted players are almost doubled from the last season
Money Money Money………. It’s been raining money likes cats and dogs for the Indian cricketers at the moment. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced its annual contracts of the players on Thursday after much delay, with a hefty hike in annual retainership besides the induction of new Grade ‘D’ for the upcoming players of the country for the period October 1, 2007 to 30 September, 2008.
The players are being showered with lots of awards and prizes these days after Indian team’s recent crowning of Twenty20 World Cup. The BCCI, State Govt., employers, State associations etc. are in a scurry to be first amongst others to announce an award or to reward their respective players.
Under its new annual contracts, BCCI hiked the retainers by Rs 10 lakh in Grade ‘A’, Rs 5 lakh in Grade ‘B’and Rs 5 lakh in Grade ‘C’. In addition the Board has introduced a new Grade ‘D’ of Rs 15 lakh for the promising players of the country, and they also offered the annual contracts to record number of players, that too almost twice of the last season. Last year the players who had contract were 17 in number but it was 33 this time around.
BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said that a player not figuring in the contract list going on to play for India would be included in Grade D. "Also, a player from Grade D who plays five Tests or 15 ODIs in a year will be placed in Grade C from that date and would be paid the retainership on a pro rata basis."
Indian pacer Zaheer Khan was the only player who moved up to the Grade ‘A’ from Grade ‘C’. Zaheer makes the grade after his stupendous performance in England. Zaheer joins the 'Big Three', Kumble and new Indian ODI & T20 skipper MS Dhoni and his deputy Yuvraj Singh. Gambhir, S Sreesanth, Dinesh Kaarthick and Wasim Jaffer have been moved up to Grade ‘B’ while Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel and Suresh Raina have been demoted down to Grade ‘C’. However, Virender Sehwag and RP Singh managed to hold their previous gradation.
Robin Uthappa and Piyush Chawla have been rewarded with Grade ‘C’, for their recent good form with their first contracts. Ramesh Powar is also a new entrant to the list.
The Grade ‘D’ contract includes Twenty20 stars Rohit Sharma, Joginder Sharma and Yusuf Pathan while upcoming players Ranadeb Bose, Manoj Tiwary, Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, S Badrinath made it to the grade. Mohd. Kaif, Parthiv Patel and Aakash Chopra are also included in the Grade ‘D’, as all the three earlier held contracts bur subsequently lost them and thus new grade gives them a chance to stage a comeback.
BCCI president Sharad Pawar said that the idea behind a Grade D was to encourage players. "We are seeing a lot of new talent and want to encourage them. It is also a sort of incentive for a player to work his way up the grade and will bring stability in the life of players.
CONTRACT LIST
GRADE ‘A’ (Rs 60 lakh): Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan.
GRADE ‘B’ (Rs 40 lakh): VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Wasim Jaffer, S Sreesanth, Dinesh Kaarthick, RP Singh, Virender Sehwag.
GRADE ‘C’ (Rs 25 lakh): Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar, Munaf Patel, Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Suresh Raina.
GRADE ‘D’ (Rs 15 lakh): Rohit Sharma, Joginder Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Ishant Sharma, Ranadeb Bose, Mohd Kaif, Cheteshwar Pujara, Parthiv Patel, S Badrinath, Aakash Chopra and Yusuf Pathan.
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