Shafali Verma moves up, Richa Ghosh bags first deal as Veda Krishnamurthy is snubbed from BCCI central contracts

Richa Ghosh and Shafali Verma, two of the youngest Indian Women’s team members, made headlines as the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced the Annual Player Contracts. While 17-year-old Verma moved to Category B from her previous contract under Category C, Ghosh from Silligusri bagged her first-ever central contract by BCCI. Verma has recently been picked in Indian Women's squad in all formats for England tour. 

The Senior Women have been offered the central contract for the period from October 2020 to September 2021. The three all-format players in T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandana and Poonam Yadav retained their top category spots and remained the only three in Category A of the contract list. 

Apart from Verma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Punam Raut have climbed the ladder from Category C to B as well. Senior players like Mitali Raj and Jhulan Goswami have retained their Category B spots.

Although the remuneration of each category remains the same at Rs 50 Lakh, 30 Lakh and 10 Lakh for A, B and C category, the number of contracted players has gone down from 22 to last year to just 19 this year. Key players to miss out on the contract are Veda Krishnamurthy, Ekta Bish, D Hemlatha and Anuja Patil. Veda lost her mother and elder sister to Covid-19 this year. 

Among those snubbed from the contracts, Ekta Bisht is the only one in Team India’s squad for England tour. While Manasi Joshi is the only player who is neither injured nor part of the Indian squad even after bagging a Category C contract. 

Grade A [INR 50 Lakh]: Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Poonam Yadav

Grade B [INR 30 Lakh]: Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma, Punam Raut, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Taniya Bhatia, Jemimah Rodrigues

Grade C [INR 10 Lakh]: Mansi Joshi, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Harleen Deol, Priya Punia, Richa Ghosh