The BCCI has whittled down the annual players’ contract from last year’s high of 37 to 25 this year.
A notable omission from the list is Virender Sehwag who played the first Test against Australia at Hyderabad last March. He also played One-Day Internationals against Pakistan at Chennai and Kolkata.
Normally players who figured in the previous 12 months were considered for the next.
Zaheer Khan too has not been offered a contract. Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh have been relegated from Grade A to Grade B.
Harbhajan Singh who was in Grade B last year has not been considered this year. Sachin Tendulkar will be paid on a pro-rata basis for two months.
The contracted players for Sept. 2013 — October 14: Grade A (Rs. 1 crore): Sachin Tendulkar, M.S. Dhoni,Virat Kohli, R. Ashwin, Suresh Raina.
Grade B (Rs. 50 lakh): Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rohit Sharma.
Grade C (Rs. 25 lakh): Dinesh Karthik, Amit Mishra, Wriddhiman Saha, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Vinay Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohit Sharma.
