It’s official: Irfan is an A-grade player

The big promotion in the list has been for Irfan Pathan, now in Grade A, while Zaheer Khan, who is back in the squad, has been pushed down to Grade C. Ashish Nehra, Laxmipathy Balaji, Parthiv Patel and Aakash Chopra have lost their contracts. Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s stupendous performances in recent times have earned him a slot in Grade B.

Left-arm spinner Murali Kartik and opening batsman Gautam Gambhir won places in Grade C after their recent stints on a regular basis at the Test level.

Interestingly, former India captain Sourav Ganguly’s contract remains unchanged in Grade A, alongside Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and others.

Shah said: ‘‘All those who are deserving have been given the contract. Where performances have been found wanting, those names have been left out. Those who have not been awarded the contracts weren’t performing well or were not regular members of the team.’’

This means there still aren’t enough cricketers available to warm the bench, other than the retainers on who Team India can rely on.

Players like Suresh Raina, Jai Prakash Yadav, Y. Venugopala Rao and Dinesh Kaarthick, who were a part of the Indian team until recently have not been found deserving — though they have been highlighted as Greg Chappell’s ‘Vision 2007’ cricketers.

That apart, players like Ashish Nehra, Laxmipathy Balaji and Parthiv Patel have been left out. Patel, though, finds a place in the Pakistan-bound squad.

The overall money available to the cricketers from the board, though, will be up quite a bit. With sports accessories major Nike signing a deal of $43 million in addition to BCCI’s whopping $70 million sponsorship deal with Sahara India Parivar, the players included in the contract are expected to enjoy a huge bonanza never before seen in Indian cricket.

Eight are in Grade A (retainership Rs 50 lakh), four in Grade B (Rs 35 lakh) and three in Grade C (Rs 20 lakh). That apart, they will be entitled to receive 13 per cent of the board’s gross revenue out of the 26 per cent earmarked for cricketers at the international and domestic levels.