Nehra gets Grade B contract, Irfan demoted

The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Wednesday rewarded in-form pacer Ashish Nehra by offering him a Grade B annual contract, worth Rs 40 lakh.

The Delhi pacer, who made a fine comeback into the ODI squad after being in the wilderness, did not have a BCCI contract the previous year.

Irfan, currently playing in the Ranji Trophy for Baroda, was demoted to Grade C after being placed in Grade B in the previous period, while his brother, Yusuf, was retained in Grade C for the period of October 1, 2009, to September 30, 2010.

Uttar Pradesh pacer Praveen Kumar also benefited in the new contracts, announced by the BCCI for 40 players, as he got a boost from Grade C to Grade B.

The Board retained the same nine as last year in Grade A, which is worth Rs 60 lakh.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar, in his 21st international season, were expectedly given Grade A contracts along with Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.

Tamil Nadu batsman S Badrinath, who was surprisingly given a Grade B contract for the 2008-09 period despite having played only a few ODIs, was downgraded to Grade C.

The Board's Gradation Committee met recently to finalise the contracts, BCCI secretary N Srinivasan said.

Another player to benefit is Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, upgraded from D to C, while leg-spinner Piyush Chawla got demoted to Grade D from C.

The lowest grade, comprising 17 players, has four new names: Mumbai pacer Dhawal Kulkarni, all-rounder Abhishek Nayar, batsman Ajinkya Rahane and Bengal batsman Manoj Tiwary.

The BCCI did not renew the contracts of Punjab pacer Manpreet Gony and Delhi leg spinner Chetanya Nanda.

The list:

Grade A (Rs 60 lakh): Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.

Grade B (Rs 40 lakh): Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, R P Singh, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra.

Grade C (Rs 25 lakh): S Badrinath, Wasim Jaffer, Yusuf Pathan, Pragyan Ojha, S Sreesanth, Dinesh Karthik and Amit Mishra, Irfan Pathan.

Grade D (Rs 15 lakh): Piyush Chawla, Ravindra Jadeja, Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohd Kaif, Virat Kohli, Ashok Dinda, Wridddhiman Saha, M Vijay, R Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudeep Tyagi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane and Manoj Tiwary.