The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday released central contracts for the senior women’s team with India’s T20I captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Yadav bagging Grade A deals that would help them fetch Rs 50 lakh each annually.
The most notable name to get dropped from that category is that of Mithali Raj with the veteran demoted to Grade B. She will earn Rs 30 lakh. The bracket, however, saw a few noteworthy inclusions too — Radha Yadav and wicket-keeper Taniya Bhatia.
Yadav was rewarded for her stellar show in the shortest format of the game in the 2019 calendar year — 21 wickets in 13 matches.
Besides Raj, Yadav and Bhatiya, Grade B comprises of Jhulan Goswami, Ekta Bisht, Shikha Pandey, Deepti Sharma and Jemimah Rodrigues.
In the third category, Grade C, three new faces made the cut as opener Shafali Verma, Priya Punia and Harleen Deol joined the likes of Veda Krishnamurthy and Punam Raut in the slab. Verma, who is the youngest woman cricketer to play a T20 international, also recently became the youngest Indian woman cricketer to score a half-century.
Anuja Patil, Mansi Joshi, D Hemlatha, Arundhati Reddy, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar and Harleen Deol were also handed Grade C contracts and will earn Rs 10 lakh.
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