New Delhi, June 16
Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh were today promoted to grade A while Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman and Irfan Pathan were demoted to grade B in the BCCI’s graded payment system.
Skipper Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble were the others in the elite group, which has been cut down by two to a group of six, and provides for an annual retainership of Rs 50 lakh each. The contracts, which were announced earlier this week after a long delay, are for the period October 1, 2006 to September 30, 2007.
Apart from the demoted players, the B category, with a Rs 35 lakh retainership package, also has Ajit Agarkar, who maintains his position, as per the revised contracts list announced by BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah in a statement.
“Gradation is based on the performance of the players in the previous season,” Shah said.
Surprisingly, pace spearhead Zaheer Khan was retained in grade C despite his impressive performance in recent months, along with Gautam Gambhir, S. Sreesanth, Suresh Raina, and new faces Wasim Jaffer and Munaf Patel.
Mohammad Kaif, who was in grade B earlier, and Murali Kartik in grade C, had their contracts not renewed. Besides the retainership, the players also get a uniform match fee and a share of the board’s profits.
— PTI
