The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced central contracts for the women's team for the 2024-25 season with most of the players from the previous retainership staying. The senior trio of skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana and all-rounder Deepti Sharma stayed in Grade A. With no mention of pay grades, it seems like they remain unchanged with amounts being Rs 50 Lakh, Rs 30 Lakh and Rs 10 Lakh for the three categories.
The retainerships weren't made public for 2023-24 but the latest ones bear resemblance to the 2022-23 ones with the Grade A being identical. The only change in Grade B is the senior spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad being dropped. Shafali Verma despite being left out of the last couple of international assignments has been retained in Grade B alongside Renuka Singh Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues and Richa Ghosh.
The major changes are in Grade C with just four players being retained from the previous contracts list. Shreyanka Patil, Titas Sadhu, Arundathi Reddy, Amanjot Kaur and Uma Chetry have been included for the first time with the likes of Devika Vaidya, Meghna Singh, S Meghana and Harleen Deol not finding a place in the 16-member announcement.
BCCI Women central contracts
Grade A: Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma
Grade B: Renuka Singh Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, Shafali Verma
Grade C: Yastika Bhatia, Radha Yadav, Shreyanka Patil, Titas Sadhu, Arundathi Reddy, Amanjot Kaur, Uma Chetry, Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar
Apart from Harleen, who gave a good account of herself in the ODIs ahead of the World Cup and in the WPL recently, there are a few players in form of Pratika Rawal, Priya Mishra and Saima Thakor, who have played for India in recent times and impress.
The Indian women's team will next be in action in tri-series against Sri Lanka and South Africa in the final week of April as the Women in Blue build up towards a home ODI World Cup.