BCCI contracts: Raina demoted, Rahane promoted; Mithali, Jhulan feature in women's top bracket

Suresh Raina has been demoted from Grade ‘A’ to Grade ‘B’ in BCCI’s central contracts for the upcoming season while Indian women’s captain Mithali Raj and star cricketer Jhulan Goswami are among the four awarded top billing in the first ever central contract system for Women’s cricket. [caption id=“attachment_2302298” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Suresh Raina has been struggling for form lately. File photo: AFP[/caption] Raina, who has been struggling for form in the ODIs and T20Is for India, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were the two players to be dropped from Grade A to Grade B. Both players have struggled to establish themselves in the Test XI, with Raina not even in the squad for the South Africa series while Bhuvneshwar is in the squad but hasn’t played a Test since January. The BCCI posted the list of players handed central contracts for the upcoming season on their website on Monday. MS Dhoni has retained retains his Grade ‘A’ contract despite retiring from Test cricket. He is the only player not playing all three formats in the top grade. The other three players in Grade ‘A’ are Virat Kohli, R Aswhin and Ajinkya Rahane, who moves from Grade ‘B’ on the back of strong showing in Tests and ODIs. It is the latest sign that Rahane is being seen as one of the pillars this team will be built on for the next few years. Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami were given Grade A contracts, along with Harmanpreet Kaur and MD Thirushkamini. They will be guaranteed a sum of Rs 15 lakhs for the 2015-16 season. “It has been decided that women cricketers will get central contracts. We will continue to work on women’s cricket and I hope this move would encourage more and more young girls to take up the sport,” BCCI President Shashank Manohar had said in his first press conference after succeeding the late Jagmohan Dalmiya. Veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who has made a successful comeback to the ODIs and T20Is for India, is rewarded with a Grade C contract after being completely omitted from the list last year. Ravindra Jadeja, who was the man of the match in the recently concluded Test against South Africa in Mohali, finds himself in Grade C this year after having been dropped from the Indian squad altogether recently. He was in Grade B last season. Pragyan Ojha, Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson and Manoj Tiwary are among the players to have been dropped out of the contract lists completely for the upcoming season. Senior Men (2015-16) Grade A (INR One Crore): Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane. OUT of Grade A from 2014-15: Suresh Raina, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, IN: Ajinkya Rahane Grade B (INR 50 lakhs): Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Shami. OUT of Grade B from 2014-15: Pragyan Ojha, Ravindra Jadeja Grade C (INR 25 lakhs): Amit Mishra, Axar Patel, Stuart Binny, Wriddhiman Saha, Mohit Sharma, Varun Aaron, Karn Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, Dhawal Kulkarni, Harbhajan Singh, S Arvind. OUT of Grade C from 2014-15: Pankaj Singh, R. Vinay Kumar, Parveez Rasool, Manoj Tiwary, Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson, Kuldeep Yadav, IN: Sreenath Arvind, Harbhajan Singh Senior Women (2015-16) Grade A (INR 15 lakhs): Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur, MD Thirushkamini. Grade B (INR 10 lakhs): Smriti Mandana, Rajeswari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bist, Veda Krishnamurthy, Niranjana Nagarajan, Poonam Raut. Note from BCCI: If a player who is not in the list of contracted players plays a minimum of three matches Test/ODI/T20I, he or she will be added in Grade ‘C’/Grade ‘B’, respectively. (With inputs from BCCI Media release)