The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Nehra gets Grade ‘B’ contract

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Nehra gets Grade ‘B’ contract

MUMBAI: Ashish Nehra, who has made a spectacular comeback in ODIs, was rewarded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) with a Grade ‘B’ contract worth Rs. 40 lakh in retainer fees.

A total of 41 players, including Irfan Pathan whose name was erroneously excluded from the initial list released by BCCI Secretary N. Srinivasan, were given annual contracts running from October 1, 2009, to September 30, 2010.

The BCCI’s gradation committee, which met recently, retained nine players in the highest Grade ‘A’ worth Rs. 60 lakh.

The privileged nine are: Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.

While rewarding Delhi pacer Nehra, who did not have a BCCI contract in the October 2008-September 2009 period, the committee demoted Irfan, who has been struggling for form and fitness, from Grade ‘B’ to ‘C’ (Rs. 25 lakh).

Also given a downward push, along with Irfan, was Tamil Nadu batsman S. Badrinath, who was surprisingly given a Grade ‘B’ contract for the 2008-09 period despite having played only a few ODIs. He is now in Grade ‘C’.

Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla got demoted to Grade ‘D’ from ‘C’.

Praveen, Karthik benefit

Uttar Pradesh fast bowler Praveen Kumar and Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik were upgraded from Grade ‘C’ to ‘B’.

The BCCI did not renew the contracts of Punjab fast bowler Manpreet Gony and Delhi leg-spinner Chetnya Nanda.

The list:

Grade ‘A’ (Rs. 60 lakh): Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.

Grade ‘B’ (Rs. 40 lakh): Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, R.P. Singh, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra.

Grade ‘C’ (Rs. 25 lakh): S. Badrinath, Wasim Jaffer, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Pragyan Ojha, S. Sreesanth, Dinesh Karthik and Amit Mishra.

Grade ‘D’ (Rs. 15 lakh): Piyush Chawla, Ravindra Jadeja, Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohd. Kaif, Virat Kohli, Ashok Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha, M. Vijay, R. Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudip Tyagi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane and Manoj Tiwary. — PTI

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