Follow UsVeteran batters Cheteshwar Pujara and former Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, who have been axed for the Sri Lanka Test series, were on Wednesday downgraded in the latest central contracts list of the BCCI that was ratified by the Board's Apex Council.
According to a report by PTI, both the senior batters, who were earlier in Grade A category which has annual remuneration of Rs 5 crore, have been moved to Grade B following their slump in form.
Wriddhiman Saha, who has also been dropped for the series, has been moved from Grade B to C while allrounder Hardik Pandya has been demoted from Grade A to C.
Grade B has a renumeration of Rs 3 crore and Grade C has Rs 1 crore.
Test opener Mayank Agarwal, who has suffered inconsistent form in the past few months, has also been demoted to group C from group B.
Mohammed Siraj, has moved from group B to group C, while Suryakumar Yadav is now in group C.
Group A, which earlier had 10 players, has now been cut down to five with Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and Mohammed Shami.
Deepti, Rajeshwari promoted among women
In the women's central contracts, spin-bowling allrounder Deepti Sharma and left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad joined T20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, opener Smriti Mandhana and spinner Poonam Yadav in group A which has an annual retainership fee of Rs 50 lakh.
Veteran duo Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami remain in group B (Rs 30 lakh). The trio of Jemimah Rodrigues, Shikha Pandey and Punam Raut who couldn't make it to the ODI World Cup squad, were demoted from Group B to C (Rs 10 lakh).
Venues finalised for South Africa series
The BCCI also decided on five venues for the five-match T20 series against South Africa. The matches will be held in Cuttack, Visakhapatnam, Delhi, Rajkot and Chennai. The series will be played in June after IPL.
National Women's T20 from April 15
The senior women's domestic T20 event, which was postponed due to the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, will start from April 15 and will go on till May 12. The Apex Council also approved the conduct of C K Nayudu Trophy from March 15 to May 1.
(With inputs from PTI)