Indian limited-overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was retained in Group A of the men’s player contracts for 2015-16 by the BCCI.
The other players who were included in the top-level contract worth `1 crore per annum, were Test captain Virat Kohli, leading off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and batsman Ajinkya Rahane, who has been upgraded from Group B.
Slipping down to B category, worth `50 lakh annually, was batsman Suresh Raina, whose name was inadvertently omitted on the BCCI’s website before the Board issued a clarification.
Senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who was not in the contracted player-list last season, gained a spot in Grade C after being recalled to the Indian squad.
As compared to 2014-15, when 32 players were given contracts, only 26 got the nod for this season.
For the first time, the BCCI offered contracts to women players, splitting them into two groups A and B worth `15 and 10 lakh respectively and eleven players made the grade.
list of senior men:
Grade A: MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahan
Grade B: Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohd Shami, Suresh Raina
Grade C: Amit Mishra, Axar Patel, Stuart Binny, Wriddhiman Saha, Mohit Sharma, Varun Aaron, Karn Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, lokesh Rahul, Dhawal Kulkarni, Harbhajan Singh, Sreenath Arvind.