The Indian women’s cricket team’s T20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur is among three players to be handed a Grade A contract.
Young Shafali Verma was included in Grade B of the central contracts while Veda Krishnamurthy and Ekta Bisht were among those who missed out. As compared to 2020, the BCCI have reduced the number of central contracts for the women’s team to 19 from 22, with players like Anuja Patil and D. Hemalatha failing to make the cut
Along with Harmanpreet, Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Yadav too received Grade A (50 Lakh INR) contracts.
Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma feature in Grade B (20 Lakh INR), along with Punam Raut, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Taniya Bhatia and Jemimah Rodrigues.
Grade C (10 Lakh INR) features six players in Mansi Joshi, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Harleen Deol, Priya Punia and Richa Ghosh.
No longer a certainty in either of the white-ball formats Veda is a notable absentee in the contract list. She hasn't played in ODIs for India since April 2018 and her last T20I appearance was in early 2020 at the T20 World Cup.
The Indian women’s team currently are quarantining in Mumbai before they leave for their multi-format tour of England in 2 weeks time.
Grade 1: Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Poonam Yadav
Grade 2: Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma, Punam Raut, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Taniya Bhatia, Jemimah Rodrigues
Grade 3: Mansi Joshi, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Harleen Deol, Priya Punia, Richa Ghosh.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)