BCCI annual player contracts: Harmanpreet, Smriti & Poonam retained in Grade A

Indian T20 team captain Harmanpreet Kaur, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana and lead spinner Poonam Yadav are the three players who have been retained in Grade A, like last year, and will be entitled to a sum of ₹50 lakh.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced its annual player contracts for the senior women cricketers for the ongoing season and the top grade has been kept unchanged. Indian T20 team captain Harmanpreet Kaur, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana and lead spinner Poonam Yadav are the three players who have been retained in Grade A, like last year, and will be entitled to a sum of ₹50 lakh.

(L-R): Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and Mithali Raj.(BCCI)

ODI team captain Mithali Raj is in Grade B, along with veteran Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma, Punam Raut, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Taniya Bhatia and Jemimah Rodrigues. These players will get a sum of ₹30 lakh.

Grade C players comprising Mansi Joshi, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Harleen Deol, Priya Punia and Richa Ghosh will be paid ₹10 lakh.

A total of 19 players were handed central contracts, which is less than the last season, when 22 players were contracted.

The ones who missed out include Veda Krishnamurthy, Ekta Bisht and Anuja Patil.

Swashbuckling opener Shafali Verma has been promoted to Grade B from Grade C, along with Punam Raut and Rajeshwari Gayakwad.

The contracts have been announced just days after Ramesh Powar was re-appointed coach of the senior women's team in place of WV Raman.