Board mulling two categories for central contracts

MUMBAI: Last year, after six meetings with the players, BCCI in its annual contracts for players announced Rs 50 lakh retainership for Grade A players, Rs 35 lakh for Grade B and Rs 20 lakh for Grade C.
Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni were promoted to Grade A, alongside Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble. At the same time, VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Virender Sehwag were demoted to Grade B.
The board had also announced that all those picked in the Indian team automatically become Grade D players, with an annual salary of Rs 15 lakh.They put Mohammed Kaif, Parthiv Patel, Aakash Chopra, Manoj Tewary, Ishant Sharma, Ranadeb Bose, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, S Badrinath, Joginder Sharma and Yusuf Pathan in this category.
This time around, the board is expected to put cricketers into two brackets, the first being top Indian cricketers and the second being the next level of players. Among those who might lose out here are Tewary, Chopra, Bose and (Joginder) Sharma, apart from Ajit Agarkar and Sreesanth, who were a part of Grade B and C respectively.
Rohit Sharma, Raina, Irfan and Yusuf Pathan, S Badrinath, Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma, Munaf and RP Singh are expected to make it instead.