Full BCCI Annual Women Cricket Player Contract List for Team India for 2020-21

BCCI releases full list of Annual Central Contracts for Women; Harmanpreet, Smriti, Poonam in Grade A

Mumbai, May 19: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday (May 19) announced the Annual Player Contracts for the Indian National Women's Cricket team for the period from October 2020 to September 2021.

The board reduced the number of contracted players from 22 to 19 for this season. Grade A offers an annual retainer fee of Rs 50 lakh once again comprised of players playing in all three formats. India's T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur, her T20I deputy Smriti Mandhana and senior spinner Poonam Yadav have bagged the Grade A contract.

The payment structures under Grade B and C are Rs 30 lakh and Rs 10 lakh respectively for the players. Ten players, including ODI and Test captain Mithali Raj and senior pacer Jhulan Goswami, have been put in Grade B. While six female cricketers have been handed over the Grade C contracts.

BCCI Central Contracts: Kohli, Rohit, Bumrah remain in top bracket BCCI Central Contracts: Kohli, Rohit, Bumrah remain in top bracket

Young India opener Shafali Verma has been promoted to Grade B. The talented batter from Haryana has been rewarded for making rapid strides in international cricket. She was recently named in India's ODI squad for the tour of England.

"Shafali is seen as the biggest superstars that we will have in years to come and hence it wasn't a surprise that she got elevated to Grade B from C. Punam Raut was rewarded for her good show in the South Africa series and she has also been promoted to Grade B," a senior BCCI official said.

While young Richa Ghosh has been handed over a contract under Grade C. Ghosh was included in India's T20I squad during the tour of Australia last year and she also got a chance to play in the T20 World Cup in Australia, in which the Indian eves ended up runners-up.

Ekta Bisht (Grade B), Veda Krishnamurthy (Grade C), Anuja Patil (Grade C), D Hemlatha (Grade C) have failed to earn the contracts for the next season. All four of these athletes were dropped from the contract charts this year owing to their poor performances. Grade C has six cricketers this year, five less than the last time.

Here's the full list of centrally contracted women cricketers of BCCI for the year 2020-21:

Grade A: Rs 50 lakh

1. Harmanpreet Kaur

2. Smriti Mandhana

3. Poonam Yadav

Grade B: Rs 30 lakh

1. Mithali Raj

2. Jhulan Goswami

3. Deepti Sharma

4. Punam Raut

5. Rajeshwari Gayakwad

6. Shafali Verma

7. Radha Yadav

8. Shikha Pandey

9. Taniya Bhatia