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New Delhi: Already battling poor form, middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh on Thursday suffered another jolt with the Cricket Board dropping him from the top grade of the central contracts which will carry substantial hikes in retainership fees.
Talented left-hander Suresh Raina, who has been in good nick, has been upgraded to the top grade which has nine players, including captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid among others.
The Grade-A players will now be entitled to a revised retainership fee of Rs one crore, a substantial hike of Rs 40 lakh from last year's contract.
In another interesting move, the BCCI's Gradation Committee, which met in Chennai on Thursday, also got rid of Grade D where some players got an annual retainership of Rs 15 lakh last year.
Only 24 players have been offered annual retainership fees against 41 who were offered last season. If anyone from non-contracted player plays for India next season, he will be upgraded to C category, according to a BCCI release.
The BCCI also hiked the retainership fees of the players as the Grade A players will now receive Rs 1 crore from the Rs 60 lakh they received last year. The Grade B players will now get Rs 50 lakh instead of Rs 40 lakh while those in Grade C will continue getting Rs 25 lakh.
The Indian players who will be in the playing XI will be now getting Rs 7 lakh per Test match, Rs 4 lakh for an ODI and Rs 2 lakh for a T20 match.
For Yuvraj, the demotion to grade-B will be another blow after being dropped from the Test squad in the two recent series.
Dinesh Karthik, who has been in and out of the one-day side as a back-up wicketkeeper and a make-shift opener, has been axed from the contracts list, along with Ajinkya Rahane, Manoj Tiwary and Dhawal Kulkarni. Shikhar Dhawan, Abhishek Nayar and Sudeep Tyagi also find themselves out of contracts.
