Amidst the euphoria surrounding Sachin Tendulkar, the Indian cricket board quietly gave a jolt to Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh by excluding them from their contracts on Thursday.
The superstars of Indian cricket were left disappointed when they found their name missing in the BCCI’s contracted players list for the 2013-14 season. It is a clear indication that the BCCI has kept performance as the only criteria while preparing the list and not seniority.
Meanwhile, Tendulkar, who is currently playing his last Test against West Indies at the Wankhede, has been listed in the Grade A category along with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin and Suresh Raina.
“The contract starts from October 1, 2013 till September 30 , 2014. Tendulkar announced his retirement days after the list was prepared. His will be on the pro rata basis as on October 1 till the end of Novemmber,” said a BCCI official about why Tendulkar’s name is in the list though he is set to retire in four days.
As far as the exclusion of Sehwag, Zaheer and Harbhajan is concerned, in a press release, the BCCI said “the players who do not figure in these lists will be placed in Grade C if they represent India in Tests / ODIs / T20 Intls during the season.”
Another official said that the three will have to do extraordinarily well to get back into the side. “If they perform they can get the contract. They will have to perform consistently in domestic cricket to get into the side because the youngsters are doing very well in the Indian team,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja, Sikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay have been promoted to Grade B from C while Uttar Pradesh pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been rewarded with a Grade B contract.
List grade wise
Grade A (Rs 1 cr): Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Suresh Raina
Grade B (Rs 50 lakhs): Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rohit Sharma
Grade C (Rs 25 lakhs): Dinesh Karthik, Amit Mishra, Wriddhiman Saha, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Vinay Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Jaydev Unadkat, Mohit Sharma
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