Mithali Raj demoted to Grade B in BCCI central contracts

Veteran cricketer Mithali Raj was on Thursday demoted to Grade B from A in BCCI central contracts while Radha Yadav and Taniya Bhatia were elevated to middle bracket. Mithali t being kept in Rs 50 lakh category was expected as 37-year-old retired from T20s in September last year. However, she remains ODI captain and plans to carry on till 2021 World Cup. T20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur retained his A category contract alongside Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Yadav. 

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Mithali demoted to Grade B

Radha and Taniya, who both had a Grade C contract worth Rs 10 lakh last year, have w entered Grade B (Rs 30 lakh).  Players getting a central contract for first time are 15-year-old opener Shafali Verma and Harleen Deol, who like teenr is an attacking batter. Shafali has attracted a lot of attention ever since making her India debut last year. She recently made 124 against Australia A in Brisbane. opener will be expected to deliver in upcoming T20 World Cup Down Under.

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Dropped from list is Mona Meshram, who was in Grade C last year and hasn't played a single game in recent times. latest contracts run from October 2019 to September 2020.

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Grade A (Rs 50 lakh): Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Poonam Yadav.

Grade B (Rs 30 lakh): Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav, Taniya Bhatia, Shikha Pandey, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma.

Grade C (Rs 10 lakh): Veda Krishnamurthy, Punam Raut, Anuja Patil, Mansi Joshi, D Hemlatha, Arundhati Reddy, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Harleen Deol, Priya Punia, Shafali Verma.

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