BCCI announces annual contracts for Women's Team; Mithali Raj in Grade B, Mandana in A

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced the Annual Player Contracts for Team India for the period from October 2020 to September 2021. BCCI retained a total of 19 women cricketers in which it has kept three players of the Indian Woman's cricket team in Grade A, 10 players in Grabe B, and 6 players in Grade C. 

T20 International (T20I) captain Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, and Poonam Yadav have been given the top contract i.e kept in the Grade A. Veterans Mithali Raj - who captains the Test and ODI teams - and Jhulan Goswami were among 10 players to get Grade B contracts. Teen sensation who recently got her maiden Test and ODI call-up, Shafali Verma was also upgraded from a Grade C contract to Grade B.

As per the BCCI official website, the Grade A players will get Rs 50 lakh each for the period between October 2020 and September 2021, while the 10 players with Grade B contracts will get Rs 30 lakh each. The players in Grade C will receive Rs 10 lakh each for this period.

Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Deepti Sharma, Punam Raut, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav, Shikha Pandey, Taniya Bhatia, and Jemimah Rodrigues are the players who have been given Grade B contracts. Players like Mansi Joshi, Arundhati Reddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Harleen Deol, Priya Punia, and Richa Ghosh have been kept under Grade C contracts.

Harmanpreet Kaur & Mithali Raj Clear Air On Claims Over BCCI’s Gender Bias

Indian women's team's cricketers Harmanpreet Singh and Mithali Raj on Tuesday cleared the air over BCCI's gender bias on their Twitter handle. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) came under the scanner of social media when it was revealed that the Indian cricket board has arranged charter flights for the men's cricket team but has asked the women’s side to take up the commercial one to fly to the United Kingdom. Both Harmanpreet and Mithali on their Twitter handles expressed their gratitude to the BCCI for arranging charter flights and conducting RT-PCR test at their home. 

Shafali Verma Gets maiden Test, ODI Call-up As India Announce Squads For England Tour

The All-India Senior Women's Selection Committee on Friday announced the Indian squad for the one-off Test match, ODI, and T20I series against England. Teenage sensation Shefali Verma has got her maiden call for the solitary test and ODI series slated to take place in England from June 16. Indian Women's cricket team will be touring England and play all three formats of the game- 1 Test, 3 ODIs, and 3 T20 matches. 

The 17-year-old batswoman from Rohtak has earned a lot of praise due to her aggressive style of batting and six-hitting ability. Shefali Verma since her debut has played 22 T20Is and has scored 617 runs, with three half-centuries at a jaw-dropping strike rate of almost 150. Without her explosive start as an opener in last year’s T20 World Cup in Australia, India would not have made it to the final. Her performance had impressed everyone from Nasser Hussain to Ian Bishop tipping her as the 'next big thing' in women’s cricket.

(Image Credits: Indian Women Cricket Fans/Facebook/PTI)