BCCI contracts: Suresh Raina demoted, Ajinkya Rahane promoted

MS Dhoni was retained in Grade A of the men’s player contracts for 2015-16 by the BCCI along with Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane, who has been upgraded from Group B. The contract is worth Rs 1 crore. Suresh Raina slipped down to category B.

Harbhajan Singh, who was not in the contracted player-list last season, gained a spot in Grade C after being recalled to the Indian squad by the national selectors. As compared with 2014-15, when 32 players were given contracts, only 26 got the nod for this season.

The BCCI offered contracts to women players for the first time—splitting them into two groups A and B worth Rs 15 and Rs 10 lakh annually and eleven players made the grade.



MEN’S CONTRACTS

Grade A: MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane

Grade B: Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Shami, Suresh Raina

Grade C: Amit Mishra, Axar Patel, Stuart Binny, W Saha, Mohit Sharma, Varun Aaron, Karn Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Lokesh Rahul, Dhawal Kulkarni, Harbhajan Singh, Sreenath Arvind.