The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the Annual Player Contracts for Team India (Senior Women) for the 2022-23 season. The list of contracted players includes 17 names, with 7 changes from the previous season, including a couple of retirements.
Senior Women’s Team Annual Player Contracts 2022-23:
Grade A – Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma
Grade B – Renuka Singh Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad
Grade C – Meghna Singh, Devika Vaidya, Sabbineni Meghana, Anjali Sarvani, Pooja Vastrakar, Sneh Rana, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Yastika Bhatia
The top bracket, A grade, sees skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and her deputy Smriti Mandhana retain their spots. One of the leading all-rounders in women’s cricket, Deepti Sharma too has retained her spot in the top bracket, while Rajeshwari Gayakwad is demoted to grade B. Poonam Yadav, who was a part of the A bracket last season, doesn’t find a contract this time around.
The 17 Player Contracts awarded by BCCI for 2022-23 👇#CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/zex3E9TbOw
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) April 27, 2023
Renuka Singh Thakur has earned her first central contract on the back of a consistent season and features in Grade B. Shafali Verma has retained her spot in the same grade (B), and joining her from Grade C are Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh, who have now been promoted a grade above, to B.
While Taniya Bhatia misses out on a spot in the retentions, retired legends Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami have left a couple of spots vacant. Pooja Vastrakar, formerly a part of Grade B, has surprisingly been demoted to Grade C.
The latest members who have been added in BCCI’S Annual Central Contracts 😃#CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/LlBAm1NTER
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) April 27, 2023
All-rounders Sneh Rana and Harleen Deol have retained their spots in grade C and are joined by Meghna Singh, Devika Vaidya, Sabbineni Meghana, Anjali Sarvani, Radha Yadav, and Yastika Bhatia. The trio of Poonam Raut, Arundhati Reddy, and Shikha Pandey from the previous season have missed out on earning a slot in the 2022-23 contracts.