BCCI provides financial aid to terror victims & also announces players' contracts
In two separate announcements on Monday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to provide financial aid to the families of the martyrs of the Mumbai terror attack, and also declared Players’ contracts for the period from 1st October 2008 to 30th September 2009.
The BCCI press release said it will contribute Rs.20 million for the families of security personnel who lost their lives in last month's Mumbai terror attacks.
The Board will also give an additional Rs.10 million to the police personnel, commandos and firemen, who sustained injuries in the operations.
New player contracts for 37 players The BCCI also announced the Indian team’s player contracts for the 2008-09 season. A total of 37 players were offered contracts in four grades - A, B, C and D.
The players in the top grade will receive an annual payment of 6 million rupees while those in the second grade will be paid 4 million rupees. The Grade C players would get 2.5 million rupees and Grade D players will earn 1.5 million rupees.
Nine players including Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman, VIrender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have been included in the top bracket. The above mentioned players were promoted due to some highly consistent performance in recent times. Gambhir's contract was upgraded from the C category, while Sehwag and Laxman moved up from B to the top group.
Rahul Dravid, who has been struggling with the bat recently, has been retained in the top grade.
The other Grade A players includes Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Zaheer Khan.
Pace sensation Ishant Sharma, Tamil Nadu batsman and its captain S.Badrinath, middle-order batsman Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and quickies Irfan Pathan, R P Singh and Munaf Patel were drafted in Grade B from Grade D.
Wasim Jaffer and fast bowler S.Sreesanth were dropped from Grade B to C.
The domestic performers who are not part of the national setup have been included in Grade D.
However, Robin Uthappa and former wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik were demoted to this grade.
The notable exclusions include Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar and Aakash Chopra.
Group 'A': Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, V V S Laxman, Harbhajan Singh,Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.
Group 'B': R P Singh, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, S Badrinath, Irfan Pathan
Group 'C': Piyush Chawla, Wasim Jaffer, Yusuf Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, S.Sreesanth
**Group 'D':**Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel, Manpreet Gony, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli, Ashok Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha, Chetnya Nanda, Murali Vijay, R. Ashwin, Shikar Dhiwan, Sudeep Tyagi