The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday announced the annual player contracts of the India women’s cricket team for the 2022-23 season.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana and all-rounder Deepti Sharma have earned the top A-grade in the BCCI Central contract list for the upcoming season. The players in the top bracket have been cut down from five last year to three, with Rajeshwari Gayakwad dropping to Grade B and Poonam Yadav missing out on a central contract altogether.
A host of fresh names have made it to Grade B, including youngsters Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, and Shafali Verma. The former two, along with Renuka Thakur, make a jump from Grade C to Grade B after their impressive showings over the last year, especially the 2022 Women’s World Cup and the 2023 T20 World Cup.
Several fresh faces have been handed their maiden central contract in the Grade C category – Meghna Singh, Devika Vaidya, Sabbineni Meghana, Anjali Sarvani, Radha Yadav and Yastika Bhatia. Sneh Rana and Harleen Deol retain their place on the list while Pooja Vastrakar drops a grade.
Pertinently however, the board omitted any mention of how much players in each of the grades would earn.
The likely explanation is that there is a massive gap in pay scales with what their male counterparts are getting. So while the women cricketers would have been informed as to what they will be taking home, the probable scenario is that non disclosure clauses have been built into their contracts. For the record, when the men’s team’s contracts were announced on 26 March, it was specified that Grade A+ players would earn Rs 7 crore, players in the next three grades would make Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore.
Full list
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
