BCCI announces annual player retainership list for Indian Women’s Cricket Team with major promotions and exclusions

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced its annual retainership contracts for the senior national women’s team. There have been some notable promotions and exclusions in the list. Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh have both earned promotions up to Grade B, while Renuka Singh Thakur has moved straight up to the second pay grade with her first central contract. All three players have been key contributors to India’s limited-overs fixtures in the past 12 months and have been deserving of their promotions.

The Grade A contract list now features just three names, down from five last year. Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, and Deepti Sharma are the only players to have made the elite category this year. The retirements of Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami were expected, resulting in their exclusion from the list. Meanwhile, seven new players who weren’t contracted last year have entered the contracts list, including left-arm spinner Radha Yadav and left-hand batter Yastika Bhatia.

Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who was part of the elite Grade A list last year, has been moved down to Grade B, while all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar has slipped from Grade B to Grade C. Players such as Harleen Deol (Grade C), Sneh Rana (Grade C), and Shafali Verma (Grade B) have maintained their status quo from last year.

Notably, pacer Shikha Pandey and leg-spinner Poonam Yadav are the major exclusions from the latest player retainership list announced by the BCCI. Poonam hasn’t represented India in any format since March 2022, while Shikha hasn’t played ODIs since 2021 and has been in and out of the T20I squad as well.