India women’s all-rounder Deepti Sharma and Rajeshwari Gayakwad have gained promotion to Grade A by the BCCI following their brilliant performances on the national level.
They will now join Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Yadav.
The women’s contracts have similar grades as the men’s but the amount is vastly different.
For Grade A players the amount is INR 50 lakhs while for Grade B and C it is INR 30 lakhs and INR 10 lakhs respectively.
At the BCCI’s apex meeting on Wednesday, the board has decided to give contracts to 17 Indian women’s players. Sneh Rana has entered Grade C while Pooja Vastrakar has climbed up from Grade C to B.
Vastrakar has been performing excellently for India and that’s why she has been upgraded.
Sneh Rana is a new entrant to the game but has also quickly established herself as a good cricketer and earned herself a contract.
Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami will remain in Grade B while Jemimah Rodrigues and Shikha Pandey have been demoted to Grade C from B.
Mansi Joshi and Radha Yadav do not feature in the contracts list.
BCCI previously also decided in an IPL meeting to start a full-fledged Women’s IPL. It will take one more year to finalize this league.
So, if the plans fall into place, we may be able to see our Indian women cricketers in action very soon.
