BCCI hands fresh contacts to 19 senior India women cricketers, Veda Krishnamurthy misses out

India opener Shafali Verma was promoted to Grade B in the fresh contracts for senior women cricketers, while big hitter Veda Krishnamurthy found herself absent from the list. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced 19 names for the October 2020 to September 2021 contracts.

17-year-old Verma, who was slotted in Grade C last season, has now been placed in the INR 30 lakhs pay bracket. On the other hand, things turned grim for Krishnamurthy, who recently lost her mother and sister to COVID-19 and is now without an India contract. The 28-year-old was drawing INR 10 lakhs (Grade C) until last season.

Only three cricketers bagged Grade A contracts, while the Grade B and C slabs have 10 and six players respectively. India T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, star opener Smriti Mandhana and leg-spinner Poonam Yadav will earn INR 50 lakhs each in the ongoing season.

However, Test and ODI captain Mithali Raj was handed a Grade B contract for the second season running, as was veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami. Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Punam Raut have been elevated from Grade C from Grade B. In addition to Veda Krishnamurthy, off-spinner Anuja Patil, all-rounder Dayalan Hemalatha and left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht are also without a contract this season. However, 17-year-old Bengal batsman Richa Ghosh has landed herself a Grade C paycheque.

For the record, the Indian men’s cricket team have four contract categories – Grade A+ (INR 7 crore), Grade A (5 crore), Grade B (INR 3 crore), Grade C (1 crore).

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Full contract list of senior India women cricketers for 2020/21

Grade A (INR 50 lakhs): Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Poonam Yadav

Grade B (INR 30 lakhs): Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma, Punam Raut, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Taniya Bhatia, Jemimah Rodrigues

Grade C (INR 10 lakhs): Mansi Joshi, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Harleen Deol, Priya Punia, Richa Ghosh