Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh were on Saturday promoted to grade 'A' while Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman and Irfan Pathan were demoted to grade 'B' in the Board of Control for Cricket in India's graded payment system.
Skipper Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble were the others in the elite group which has been cut down by two to a group of six, and provides for an annual retainership of Rs. 50 lakh each.
The contracts, which were announced earlier this week after a long delay, are for the period October 1, 2006 to September 30, 2007.
Apart from the demoted players the 'B' category, with Rs 35 lakh retainership package, also has Ajit Agarkar, who maintains his position, as per the revised contracts list announced by board secretary Niranjan Shah in a statement.
"Gradation is based on the performance of the players in the previous season," Shah said.
Surprisingly, pace spearhead Zaheer Khan was retained in grade 'C' despite his impressive performance in recent months, along with Gautam Gambhir, S Sreesanth, Suresh Raina, and new faces Wasim Jaffer and Munaf Patel.
Mohammad Kaif, who was in grade 'B' earlier, and Murali Kartik in grade 'C', had their contracts not renewed.
Besides the retainership, the players also get a uniform match fee and a share of the board's profits.
The BCCI contracted players:
Grade A: Rahul Dravid (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Grade B: VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar.
Grade C: Gautam Gambhir, Wasim Jaffer, S Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, Suresh Raina, Munaf Patel.
