Richa, Jemimah get promotion in women’s central contracts

NEW DELHI: Young wicketkeeper-batter Richa Ghosh and Jemimah Rodrigues have been elevated to the B category in the BCCI central contracts while Shikha Pandey and Taniya Bhatia have been dropped. A player in the A category gets paid Rs 50 lakh over and above match fees while Rs 30 lakh and Rs 10 lakh are allotted for B and C category respectively. The BCCI has kept only three players in the highest category and it includes skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, batter Smriti Mandhana and all-rounder Deepti Sharma. All three have been retained in the category while spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad has been demoted to the B category. Veteran pacer Shikha Pandey, who had made a surprise comeback for the T20 World Cup in South Africa, finds herself without a contract and so does wicketkeeper Taniya. Richa and Jemimah have moved up from C to B category. New entrants in Category C include pacer Meghna Singh, batter Devika Vaidya, opener Sabbhineni Meghana, Radha Yadav, left-arm pacer Anjali Sarvani and batter Yastika Bhatia.

LIST: Category A: Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma. Category B: Renuka Singh Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh and Rajeshwari Gayakwad. Category C: Meghna Singh, Devika Vaidya, Sabbhineni Meghana, Anjali Sarvani, Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol and Yastika Bhatia