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Mumbai: In a manner unabashedly unique if compared to job cuts and economic slowdown gutting companies, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has gone ahead and handed annual contracts for the year 2008-09 to almost everybody who has been in the selection radar.
In a continuation of the practice of having separate grades for seniors and juniors, the board has included 37 cricketers in its list of Grade A, B, C and D, a few names surprisingly on a much higher pay scale than expected and a few making it to the list despite no worthy achievements.
Chetanya Nanda, a 29-year old leg-spinner from Delhi who has played 29 first class matches in four years starting 2004, has managed to clinch a Grade 'D' contract though he doesn't figure in the top-25 this season. Instead, those who did better for Delhi last season when they won the premier domestic tournament, Rajat Bhatia and Pradeep Sangwan among the bowlers and Akash Chopra and Mithun Manhas among the top scorers, have been ignored.
New Contract Player:
BCCI players contracts for the season October 01, 2008 to September 30, 2009
Grade A (Rs 60 lakh): Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh
Promoted: Sehwag, Laxman, Harbhajan, Gambhir
Retired: Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly
Grade B (Rs 40 lakh): RP Singh, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, S Badrinath, Irfan Pathan
Promoted: Munaf, Raina, Rohit, Ishant, S Badrinath, Irfan
Demoted: Sree Santh, Dinesh Karthik, Wasim Jafer
Grade C (Rs 25 lakh): Piyush Chawla, Wasim Jaffer, Yusuf Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, S Sreesanth
Promoted: Ojha, Yusuf, Praveen and Mishra
Demoted: Uthappa
Ejected: Agarkar, Power
Grade D (Rs 15 lakh): Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel, Manpreet Gony, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli, Ashok Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha, Chetanya Nanda, M Vijay, R Ashwin, Shikhar Dhiwan, Sudeep Tyagi
Newcomers: Gony, Kohli, Saha, Dinda, Nanda, M Vijay, Ashwin, Dhawan, Tyagi
Ejected: Joginder Sharma, Ranadeb Bose, Aakash Chopra, Manoj Tiwari
Note: The promotions, demotions and ejections are in comparison to the 2007-08 contract.
