Laxman, Harbhajan, Gambhir, Sehwag get Grade A contracts

New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS) V.V.S. Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag went a notch up to Grade A contract of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The players joined skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh, in the Rs.6 million a year pay package of the board.

A total of 37 players were offered contracts in four grades - A, B, C and D.

Among other biggest gainers in the BCCI's contract list were Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma and S. Badrinath, who moved up from Grade D (Rs.1.5 million ) to a Grade B (Rs.4 million) contract.

Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel and Suresh Raina have also climbed up to Grade C (Rs.2.5 million).

The players who were demoted were, S. Sreesanth, Robin Uthappa and Dinesh Karthik.

Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar and Akash Chopra were the prominent omissions from last year's contract.

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

Grade B (Rs.4 million): Rudra Pratap Singh, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, Subramaniam Badrinath, Irfan Pathan

Grade C (Rs.2.5 million): Piyush Chawla, Wasim Jaffer, Yusuf Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, S. Sreesanth

Grade D (Rs.1.5 million): Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel, Manpreet Gony, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli, Ashok Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha, Chetanya Nanda, Murali Vijay, R Ashwin, Shikhar Dhiwan, Sudeep Tyagi.