Nehra awarded Grade B contract, Irfan demoted to Grade C

New Delhi, Nov 25 : Fast bowler Ashish Nehra, who made an impressive return to international cricket after four years, was rewarded with a Grade B retainership while Irfan Pathan was demoted to Grade C by the Indian cricket board Wednesday.

There were no changes in the Grade A contracts, worth Rs.6 million per annum, as all the nine cricketers retained their places, board secretary N. Srinivasan said in a statement.

Nehra and Praveen Kumar were awarded Grade B contracts, worth Rs.4 million, for their impressive performances in the one-dayers. Irfan and Tamil Nadu batsman Subramaniam Badrinath were, however, demoted to Group C.

Dinesh Karthik was promoted to Grade C while leg-spinner Piyush Chawla slipped to Grade D. Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane, Radindra Jadeja and Manoj Tiwari were also handed Grade D contracts worth Rs.1.5 million.

Grade A (Rs.6 million): Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, V.V.S. Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh

Grade B (Rs.4 million): Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel, Rudra Pratap Singh, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Ashish Nehra

Grade C (Rs.2.5 million): Subramaniam Badrinath, Wasim Jaffer, Yusuf Pathan, Pragyan Ojha, Sreesanth, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan and Amit Mishra

Grade D (Rs.1.5 million): Piyush Chawla, Ravindra Jadeja, Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammed Kaif, Virat Kohli, Ashok Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha, Murali Vijay, R. Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudeep Tyagi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane and Manoj Tiwary