BCCI central contracts: Richa Ghosh, Jemimah Rodrigues move up to Grade B; Shikha Pandey misses out

Three players have been retained in the highest category, including skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and all-rounder Deepti Sharma as the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday announced the Annual Player Contracts for Indian women for the 2022-’23 season.

Richa Ghosh and Jemimah Rodrigues have been promoted to the B category in the BCCI central contracts for the 2022-’23 season, while Shikha Pandey and Taniya Bhatia have missed out from this list. However, spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad dropped to Grade B.

Meanwhile, Poonam Yadav, a leg spinner who was in the A category last time, now has no contract. Arundhati Reddy, Punam Raut are other absentees from the existing contract list on the BCCI website.

Even Shikha Pandey, the veteran bowler who made an unexpected comeback for the T20 World Cup in South Africa, missed out on the contract as did wicket-keeper Taniya Bhatia.

Meanwhile, pacer Renuka Thakur who did not have a contract last year has been slotted directly into the B category on the back of a great international season.

Pacer Meghna Singh, batter Devika Vaidya, opener S Meghana, all-rounders Sneh Rana and Radha Yadav, left-arm pacer Anjali Sarvani, and batter Yastika Bhatia are named in Grade C.

The BCCI release and the website doesn’t mention the retainer value but if it is unchanged, it amounts to 50 lakh for Grade A, 30 lakh for Grade B and 10 lakh for Grade C.

The board had announced last year that the match fees for the men and women will be equal but there continues to be a massive disparity in the central retainer fees. For the men’s team, there is Grade A+ (Rs 7 crore), Grade A (Rs 5 crore), Grade B (Rs 3 crore) and Grade C (Rs 1 crore).