The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday announced the annual player contracts for Indian senior women’s team, with captain Harmanpreet Kaur, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana and all-rounder Deepti Sharma earning the top A-grade for the upcoming season.
Left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who was previously in Grade A, has been transferred to grade B while her colleague Poonam Yadav has not received a contract this year.
Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shefali Verma, Richa Ghosh and Rajeshwari Gayakwad are placed in Grade B, while Meghna Singh, Devika Vaidya, Sabbineni Meghana, Anjali Sarvani, Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol and Yastika Bhatia have been put in Grade C.
The annual player contracts was last announced by the BCCI for the 2020-21 season where the players were divided into three categories. Grade A player earned an annual salary of INR 50 lakh while Grade B player fetched INR 30 lakh. For a Grade C player, the annual salary was INR 10 lakh.
In a landmark announcement last year, the BCCI had revealed that women cricketers would now earn the match fees equal to that of men cricketers. This means that now women cricketers will also earn INR 15 lakhs for a Test match, 6 lakhs for an ODI, and 3 lakhs for a T20I. Earlier, the women cricketers used to get INR 1 lakh for an ODI or a T20I, and INR 2.5 lakh for a Test match.
The grade structures are as follows:
- Grade A: Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma
- Grade B: Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad
- Grade C: Meghna Singh, Devika Vaidya, Sabbineni Meghana, Anjali Sarvani, Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Yastika Bhatia
In March this year, the BCCI had organized the inaugural edition of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) where Kaul-led Mumbai Indians (MI) defeated Meg Lanning’s Delhi Capitals (DC) in the final to seal the title.
