The Board of Control for Cricket in India [ Images ] on Wednesday rewarded in-form pacer Ashish Nehra [ Images ] by offering him a Grade B annual contract, worth Rs 40 lakh.

The Delhi [ Images ] pacer, who made a fine comeback into the ODI squad after being in the wilderness, did not have a BCCI contract the previous year.

Irfan, currently playing in the Ranji Trophy for Baroda, was demoted to Grade C after being placed in Grade B in the previous period, while his brother, Yusuf, was retained in Grade C for the period of October 1, 2009, to September 30, 2010.

Uttar Pradesh [ Images ] pacer Praveen Kumar [ Images ] also benefited in the new contracts, announced by the BCCI for 40 players, as he got a boost from Grade C to Grade B.

The Board retained the same nine as last year in Grade A, which is worth Rs 60 lakh.

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni [ Images ] and champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ], in his 21st international season, were expectedly given Grade A contracts along with Rahul Dravid [ Images ], VVS Laxman [ Images ], Virender Sehwag [ Images ], Gautam Gambhir [ Images ], Yuvraj Singh [ Images ], Zaheer Khan [ Images ] and Harbhajan Singh [ Images ].

Tamil Nadu batsman S Badrinath, who was surprisingly given a Grade B contract for the 2008-09 period despite having played only a few ODIs, was downgraded to Grade C.

The Board's Gradation Committee met recently to finalise the contracts, BCCI secretary N Srinivasan said.

Another player to benefit is Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik [ Images ], upgraded from D to C, while leg-spinner Piyush Chawla [ Images ] got demoted to Grade D from C.

The lowest grade, comprising 17 players, has four new names: Mumbai [ Images ] pacer Dhawal Kulkarni, all-rounder Abhishek Nayar [ Images ], batsman Ajinkya Rahane [ Images ] and Bengal batsman Manoj Tiwary.

The BCCI did not renew the contracts of Punjab [ Images ] pacer Manpreet Gony and Delhi leg spinner Chetanya Nanda.

The list:

Grade A (Rs 60 lakh): Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman [ Images ], Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.

Grade B (Rs 40 lakh): Suresh Raina [ Images ], Rohit Sharma [ Images ], Munaf Patel [ Images ], R P Singh, Ishant Sharma [ Images ], Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra.

Grade C (Rs 25 lakh): S Badrinath, Wasim Jaffer [ Images ], Yusuf Pathan [ Images ], Pragyan Ojha [ Images ], S Sreesanth [ Images ], Dinesh Karthik and Amit Mishra [ Images ], Irfan Pathan [ Images ].

Grade D (Rs 15 lakh): Piyush Chawla, Ravindra Jadeja [ Images ], Robin Uthappa [ Images ], Parthiv Patel [ Images ], Cheteshwar Pujara [ Images ], Mohd Kaif, Virat Kohli [ Images ], Ashok Dinda [ Images ], Wridddhiman Saha, M Vijay, R Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan [ Images ], Sudeep Tyagi [ Images ], Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Ajinkya Rahane and Manoj Tiwary.