BCCI Central Contract for Women Cricketers for 2022-23: Annual Salary Of Women In Blue Announced

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BCCI Central Contracts: The Board of Control for Cricket In India (BCCI) on Thursday (April 27) announced the central annual contracts for the 2022-23 season for women cricketers. The board has kept the number of contracted players to 17.

Young wicket-keeper batter Richa Ghosh and top-order batter Jemimah Rodrigues have been promoted to Category B while Shikha Pandey and Taniya Bhatia have been excluded from the list.

The contract period runs from October to September but the BCCI made the announcement on Thursday. While the BCCI introduced pay parity for woman cricketers with men in match fees but there is still a big difference in the central contracts. (BCCI contracted male cricketers for 2022-23)

A woman player in the A category gets paid Rs 50 lakh over and above match fees and Rs 30 lakh and Rs 10 lakh are allotted for B and C categories respectively. The central contract for male cricketers has four categories where the lowest category player draws an annual salary of INR 1 crore.

The men cricketers 'A+' draw a salary of INR 7 crore. The 'A' category players get a remuneration of INR 5 crore, while category 'B' players get an annual payment of INR 3 crore, and players in category 'C' get INR 1 crore per annum.

Big Gainers and Losers in BCCI Central Contract for Women Cricketers

Category A: The board has kept only three players in the highest category and they include skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, star batter Smriti Mandhana and all-rounder Deepti Sharma. All three have been retained in the same category.

Category B: Senior spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad has been demoted to the B category. Pacer Renuka Thakur, who did not have a contract last year, has been bracketed straight into the B category after a stellar season. Richa Ghosh and Jemimah Rodrigues have moved up from C to B category.

Category C: New entrants in Category C include pacer Meghna Singh, batter Devika Vaidya, opener S Meghana, Radha Yadav, left-arm pacer Anjali Sarvani and batter Yastika Bhatia. Harleen Deol and Sneh Rana remain in the lowest category while injury-prone all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar has been demoted to C from B.

Woman Cricketers Who Lost Central Contracts

Leg spinner Poonam Yadav, who was in the A category last year, doesn't have a contract at all after falling down in the pecking order. She last played for India in March 2022.

Veteran pacer Shikha Pandey, who had made a surprise comeback for the T20 World Cup in South Africa, finds herself without a contract and so does wicket-keeper Taniya Bhatia.

Full list of Woman Cricketer in BCCI Central Contract 2022-23

Category A: Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandha and Deepti Sharma.

Category B: Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad.

Category C: Meghna Singh, Devika Vaidya, S Meghana, Anjali Sarvani, Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol and Yastika Bhatia.