Tiwary and Ranadeb are in Grade D

New Delhi: The BCCI on Thursday announced an enhanced annual retainership for a pool of 33 players with top grade cricketers being offered a whopping Rs 60 lakh.

Having already showered the Twenty20 World Cup winning team with hefty cash incentives, the BCCI carried its magnanimity on to the central contracts as well by increasing the retainership in the existing three categories while also introducing a fourth grade.

Pacer Zaheer Khan was the lone new name in the elite grade A, which will get Rs 60 lakh as retainership, an increase of Rs 10 lakh from the earlier contracts.

Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Yuvraj Singh and current ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni were the others in grade A. There were eight players in grade B which has a retainership of Rs 40 lakh.

VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Wasim Jaffer, Sreesanth, Dinesh Karthik, Rudra Pratap Singh and Virender Sehwag have been clubbed in grade B, which has also seen a hike of Rs 5 lakh.

Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar, Munaf Patel, Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla and Suresh Raina are the players who find a place in grade C which now has a retainership of Rs 25 lakh.

Rohit Sharma and Joginder Sharma, who starred in India’s World Twenty20 campaign, were among 11 players who have been accommodated in group D, introduced for the first time.

Manoj Tiwary, Ishant Sharma, Ranadeb Bose, Mohammed Kaif, Cheteshwar Pujara, Parthiv Patel, S Badrinath, Aakash Chopra and Yusuf Pathan are the other players in that grade which offers a retainership of Rs 15 lakh.

A player, who was not offered a retainership and was selected to play for India in Tests or ODIs, would be placed in grade D, a BCCI release said.

“A player in grade D, if he plays 5 Tests or 15 ODIs in a year, will be placed in grade C from that date and will be paid retainership on the pro-rata basis,” the release added.

THE CONTRACTED PLAYERS

Grade A (Rs 60 lakh): Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Grade B (Rs 40 lakh): VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Sreesanth, R.P. Singh.

Grade C (25 lakh): Ajit Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Suresh Raina, Munaf Patel, Piyush Chawla, Robin Uthappa.

Grade D (15 lakh): Mohammed Kaif, Parthiv Patel, Aakash Chopra, Manoj Tiwary, Ishant Sharma, Ranadeb Bose, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, S Badrinath, Joginder Sharma, Yusuf Pathan.