Disgraced veteran Cheteshwar Pujara and former Test Vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane were demoted in the BCCI’s latest central contract list ratified by the Council’s Apex Council on Wednesday. The BCCI has four categories: A with an annual fee of Rs 7 crore while categories A, B and C are valued at Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively. Last time 28 cricketers were awarded central contracts, but this year 27 have been awarded contracts with Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah static as A players.
Accordingly, Pujara, Rahane and Ishant Sharma who were in Class A are now in Class B after a slump in form that saw them scrapped from the upcoming home Test series against Sri Lanka.
That they are being downgraded, PTI reported on January 20.
Group A, which previously had 10 players, has now shrunk to five with Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Mohammed Shami holding their slots.
The biggest relegation, however, was for injury-ridden all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who has dropped from Class A to C in the roster, along with senior opener Shikhar Dhawan, who now only plays one format and that’s ODIs.
Controversial goalkeeper batter Wriddhiman Saha, who has been kicked out of the test team, will still be richer with Rs 1 crore after being relegated from Group B to C.
Saha, who has breached the central contract clause through public comments on selection issues and statements about BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and head coach Rahul Dravid, has been kept in Group C, although it has been made clear by team management that he is unlikely to do so. play for India again.
On that day, the ratification took place, but it was decided long ago that some of the non-performers will be demoted.
Spinner Kuldeep Yadav and pacesetter Navdeep Saini, who were part of the earlier group, have been removed from the list altogether.
Mayank Agarwal, who has been inconsistent all along, has now been relegated to Group C from Group B.
Those who have been rewarded are Mohammed Siraj, who is now in Group B for his lion-hearted performances, while Suryakumar Yadav, for playing the required number of games, is now in Group C.
Deepti, Rajeshwari promoted among women
In the women’s Central contracts, Deepti Sharma and Rajeshwari Gayakwad joined Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Yadav, who were already in Group A, which has an annual commission of Rs 50 lakh.
Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami remain in Group B (Rs 30 lakh). Jemimah Rodrigues has been relegated from Group B to C (Rs 10 lakh).
Locations final for South Africa series
The BCCI also endorsed five venues for the five-match T20 series against South Africa. The competitions will be held in Cuttack, Visakhapatnam, Delhi, Rajkot and Chennai. The series will be played in June after IPL.
Abbey Kuruvilla now new GM (Cricket Operations)
Former pacesetter Abbey Kuruvilla, who was appointed senior national selector last year, has resigned and is now the new General Manager (Cricket Operations), a position vacated by Dhiraj Malhotra.
Malhotra stepped down a few months ago to rejoin Delhi Capitals.
Kuruvilla, who had pimped Ajit Agarkar to claim the position of West Zone selector, was forced to resign because the constitution stipulates that a national selector (junior or senior) cannot cumulatively remain in the position for more than five years.
Kuruvilla’s appointment did not take into account that he had completed four years as chairman of the junior national selection committee, so all he had was one year.
National Ladies T20 from April 15th
The women’s T20 senior event, which was postponed due to the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, will start on April 15 and run until May 12.
The Apex Council also approved the conduct of the CK Nayudu Trophy from March 15 to May 1.
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This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
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