Pujara, Jadeja elevated to Grade A in BCCI contracts, Harbhajan left out

Mumbai [India], Mar. 22 (ANI): India's top-order batsman Cheteshwar Pujara and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja are the latest names to be elevated to Grade A of the Annual Players Contracts following their stellar performances in the ongoing four-match Test series against Australia. While Jadeja recently climbed to the top spot in the ICC Player Rankings for Test Bowlers after grabbing nine wickets in the drawn third Test, Pujara's knock of 202 in the same match has also helped him gain four slots to reach a career-best second ranking. The Committee of Administrators met earlier in the day and decided on the Annual Player Contracts for men cricketers for the period ending September 30, 2017. The likes of Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kedar Jadhav have been rewarded with Grade C contracts for their performances at the international level. Suresh Raina, who till recently was a permanent member of the limited-over squad, has been left out of the 32-member list. Meanwhile, veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and veteran batsman Gautam Gambhir are also missing from the list as they have played before the said date, from which the contracts are to come into effect. The Annual Retainer amounts were enhanced for all the categories and Grade A players will be paid Rs 2 crores per annum, Grade B will be paid Rs 1 Crore per annum and Grade C will be paid Rs 50 lakhs per annum, which is double the amounts paid in the earlier years. The Match Fee enhancement for men cricketers will be effective from October 1 onwards and Rs 15 lakhs per Test, Rs 6 lakhs per ODI and Rs 3 lakhs for T20 International will be paid. Meanwhile, Sandhya Rajesh Sawant, wife of Late Rajesh Sawant who unfortunately passed away while he was on official assignment with the India Under 19 team, was handed a cheque of Rs 15 lakhs, in recognition of his services to Indian Cricket. The complete list is as follows: Grade A Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay. Grade B Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuvraj Singh. Grade C Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, Ashish Nehra, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur, Rishabh Pant.(ANI)