Nehra replaced Irfan Pathan in the Grade B list for an annual central contract. UP all-rounder Praveen Kumar and Tamilnadu Ranji captain and wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik were the others to benefit, both moving up a grade
INDIAN ALL rounder Irfan Pathan, who is suffering from a shoulder injury, has not been given a central contract by the BCCI for 2009-2010. Ashish Nehra, who made a remarkable comeback from injury this year, gets back into the list of central contract.
Nehra replaced Irfan Pathan in the Grade B list for an annual central contract. UP all-rounder Praveen Kumar and Tamilnadu Ranji captain and wicketkeeper batsman Dinesh Karthik were the others to benefit, both moving up a grade.
Karthik is now in Grade C (Rs 25 lakh) while Praveen moved up to Grade B. Apart from Irfan, S Badrinath, slipped to Grade C from B last year, and Piyush Chawla, who has moved one step down to D. There were four new entries in India's latest retainer list are Mumbai medium-pacer Abshishek Nayar, Mumbai seamer Dhawal Kulkarni, Mumbai opener Ajinkya Rahane and Bengal's right-handed batsman Manoj Tiwary. Grade A - (Rs 60 lakh): Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh. Grade B - (Rs 40 lakh): Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra. Grade C - (Rs 25 lakh): S Badrinath, Wasim Jaffer, Yusuf Pathan, Pragyan Ojha, Sreesanth, Dinesh Karthik, Amit Mishra. Grade D - (Rs 15 lakh): Piyush Chawla, Ravindra Jadeja, Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli, Ashok Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha, M