BCCI announces Women’s Central Contracts for the 2023-24 season. And there comes a massive shock for fans as pacer Shikha Pandey & leg-spinner Poonam Yadav have been excluded from the announced central contracts. BCCI has included 17 players in the Central Contract list for the 2023-24 season & the duo is unfortunately out of the list. Poonam hasn’t featured for India since March 2022 while Shika hasn’t played ODIs since 2021 & has been an irregular member of the T20I team. This marks a drastic demolition for Poonam Yadav & Shikha Pandey. Last year in 2022, Poonam was holding a Grade A Contract & just after one year she finds herself out of the centrally contracted players list. meanwhile, Shikha was having Grace C contract in 2022.
Not only them but also Taniya Bhatia & Arundhati Reddy are out of the centrally contracted Players list. The announced central contracts came as a boon for some as Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh got promoted up to Grade B while pacer Renuka Singh Thakur moved into the second grade right into her first central contract. All three players have been an integral part of India’s squad over the last 12 months.
While the marquee A-grade contract just features three names they are Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, & Deepti Sharma. A total number of seven new players who were not a part of the Central Contract list in 2022 have entered the contract list this year. Youngster Radha Yadav & Yastika Bhatia too occupies a spot at the Central Contracts for the 2023-24 season.
The central contracts 2023-24 all witness demolition of certain players as left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad who was a part of the Grade A Contract has moved down to the Grade B contract. On the other hand, all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar has moved from Grade B to Grade C. Players like Harleen Deol (Grade C), Sneh Rana (Grade C) & Shafali Verma (Grade B) have maintained their Grades in 2023-24 contracts.
List of Women’s Central Contracts 2023-24
Contracted Players
Grade A (INR 50 lakh): Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Harmanpreet Kaur
Grade B (INR 30 lakh): Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Renuka Singh Thakur
Grade C (INR 10 lakh): Devika Vaidya, Sabbineni Meghana, Meghna Singh, Anjali Sarvani, Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Yastika Bhatia
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