Rahane awarded Grade A contract, Raina demoted to Grade B

09 November, New Delhi

Star batsman Ajinkya Rahane has been awarded for his consistency as the BCCI today included him in Grade A list of annual player contracts for 2015-16.

The BCCI in its Annual General Meeting (AGM), however, demoted limited overs specialist Suresh Raina and pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar to Grade B while all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who was in Grade B the previous year, has been moved to Grade C.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, retained their Grade A contracts while Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Mohammad Shami were named again in Grade B.

Veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who made his comeback to the national side earlier this year, also found himself in the list of contracted players in Group C, while Sreenath Aravind also made it to the C group.

Left-arm-spinner Pragyan Ojha, who was in Grade B last year, failed to bag a contract while several players, who were in Grade C last year, have been omitted.

A total of 26 cricketers featured in the list of centrally-contracted Indian players while eight players, including Robin Uthappa and Vinay Kumar, who were contracted by BCCI last year, found themselves without one for 2015-16.List:Grade A: MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Ajinkya RahaneGrade B: Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Shami.Grade C: Amit Mishra, Axar Patel, Stuart Binny, Wriddhiman Saha, Mohit Sharma, Varun Aaron, Karn Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, Dhawal Kulkarni, Harbhajan Singh, S Arvind.Out: Pragyan Ojha, Pankaj Singh, Vinay Kumar, Parvez Rasool, Manoj Tiwary, Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson, Kuldeep Yadav