ICC Women's World Cup 2022: BCCI To Elevate Deepti Sharma And Rajeshwari Gayakwad For Grade A Contracts

Deepti Sharma and Rajeshwari Gayakwad are set to be elevated to Grade A contracts by the BCCI for the 2021-22 season. Both the players have over time performed consistently for the Indian Women’s team and won over the trust of the board to get them promoted. 

Sharma and Gayakwad will be joining Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Yadav are also in Grade A with an entitlement of INR 50 lakh annual salary. Grade B and C cricketers will draw an annual package of 30 lakhs and 10 lakhs each. 

The BCCI enlisted a total of 17 cricketers for the annual contracts, with Sneh Rana making it to the list with Grade C while Pooja Vastrakar was promoted to Grade B. Vastrakar has been performing consistently for India and has lately started finishing games as well for her side. Both Gayakwad and Sharma are in India’s World Cup squad announced by the BCCI.

Veterans Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami stick to the Grade B category while Jemimah Rodrigues and Shikha Pandey, who is not a part of the World Cup squad have been degraded from category B to C. For both the veteran cricketers, the ICC Women’s World Cup 2022 might be their last assignment in national colors. Mithali in fact has hinted at retiring from the game immediately after the end of the tournament. 

Meanwhile, the BCCI is also planning to start the Women’s IPL next year. There have been long discussions about the same and if everything goes as per plan, the Women’s IPL might be on next year. 

Women’s Central Contracts Announced By BCCI

Grade A (INR 50 lakh): Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Poonam Yadav, Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad

Grade B (INR 30 lakh): Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Tanya Bhatia, Shafali Verma, Pooja Vastrakar

Grade C (INR 10 lakh): Poonam Raut, Shikha Pandey, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Harleen Deol, Arundhati Reddy, Sneh Rana

India’s 2022 Women’s World  Cup Squad

Mithali Raj (c), Harmanpreet Kaur (vc), Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Jhulan Goswami, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav.

Standby Players: S. Meghana, Ekta Bisht, Simran Dil Bahadur

Also Read: ICC Women’s World Cup 2022: Harmanpreet Kaur Backs Herself To Deliver In Mega Event