Full list of cricketers who missed out on the BCCI contract for 2016/17

In the list of BCCI contracts released yesterday for 2016/17, most fans were surprised with the absence of names of Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh from the list, they failed to secure central contracts from for the upcoming season.

Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay have been given a promotion to Grade A. The Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (COA), which announced the list, also deciding to double the annual retainer amounts. INR 2 Crore per annum will be paid to Grade A players, while Grade B and C cricketers will receive INR 1 Crore and INR 50 Lakh respectively.

32 players in total, categorised in three different grades, were given central contracts which are effective from 1 October 2016 to 30 September 2017.

But fans were disappointed because many big names of Indian cricket were released from the central contracts. Two big names that went missing were that of middle-order batsman Suresh Raina and former off-spinner, Harbhajan Singh.

Raina has not put up a good show in the recent past, for which he has been temporarily dropped from the team. He last played an ODI and Test in 2015 but made a return to the T20 side during the England series earlier this year. He also was named the captain of the Uttar Pradesh team in the Vijay Hazare Trophy but did not take part in the prestigious 50-over tournament.

Raina, surprisingly also could not find a seat for himself in the India Blue or India Red squads for Deodhar Trophy. The UP star in the 2014-15 season had a Grade A contract but was dropped to Grade B in the last term.

Harbhajan, on the other hand, was demoted to Grade C in previous last list of centrally contracted players. He last played for India in 2016 during the Asia Cup game against UAE. But he has found a seat for himself in the India Blue squad for the upcoming Deodhar Trophy.

Here is a list of all those players and their respective Grades last year:

Suresh Raina – Grade B

Stuart Binny – Grade C

Mohit Sharma – Grade C

Varun Aaron- Grade C

Karn Sharma – Grade C

Harbhajan Singh – Grade C

Sreenath Aravind – Grade C