Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Yadav continued to be in the top bracket while the total number of women cricketers annually contracted to the Board of Control for Cricket in India came down from 22 to 19 as BCCI on Wednesday announced the list for the period from October 2020 to September 2021. The previous time period was October 2019 to September 2020.
Shafali Verma and Punam Raut earned a promotion by moving from Grade C to Grade B.
The Grade A which offers an annual retainer fees of Rs 50 lakh once again comprised of three all-format players — T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, her deputy Smriti Mandhana and leg break bowler Poonam Yadav.
The Grade B has an annual retainer fee of Rs 30 lakh and veterans such as Jhulan Goswami, Mithali Raj and Deepti Sharma are among 10 players in this bracket.
Richa Ghosh has been included in the Grade C (Rs 10 lakh). It has has six cricketers this year, five fewer than the last time. Senior cricketers Ekta Bisht and Veda Krishnamurthy missed out on the annual contracts. Dayalan Hemlatha and spinner Anuja Patil were also absent.
| Grade | Players (2020-'21) | Players (2019-'20) |
|---|---|---|
| A (Rs 50 lakh) | Harmanpreet Kaur | Harmanpreet Kaur |
| Smriti Mandhana | Smriti Mandhana | |
| Poonam Yadav | Poonam Yadav | |
| B (Rs 30 lakh) | Mithali Raj | Mithali Raj |
| Jhulan Goswami | Jhulan Goswami | |
| Deepti Sharma | Ekta Bisht | |
| Punam Raut | Radha Yadav | |
| Rajeshwari Gayakwad | Shikha Pandey | |
| Shafali Verma | Deepti Sharma | |
| Radha Yadav | Jemimah Rodrigues | |
| Shikha Pandey | Taniya Bhatia | |
| Taniya Bhatia | ||
| Jemimah Rodrigues | ||
| C (Rs 10 lakh) | Mansi Joshi | Veda Krishnamurthy |
| Arundhati Reddy | Punam Raut | |
| Pooja Vastrakar | Anuja Patil | |
| Harleen Deol | Mansi Joshi | |
| Priya Punia | D. Hemlatha | |
| Richa Ghosh | Arundhati Reddy | |
| Rajeshwari Gayakwad | ||
| Pooja Vastrakar | ||
| Harleen Deol | ||
| Priya Punia | ||
| Shafali Verma |