The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday announced an enhanced annual retainership amount for a pool of 33 players, with top grade cricketers being offered Rs 60 lakh.

The Board increased the retainership amount in existing three categories while also introducing a fourth grade.

Paceman Zaheer Khan was the lone new name in Grade A, which will get Rs 60 lakhs as retainership, an increase of Rs 10 lakh.

The BCCI said any player not offered a retainership and selected to play for India in Tests or ODIs would be placed in Grade D.

“A player in Grade D, if he plays 5 Tests or 15 ODIs in a year, will be placed in Grade C from that date and will be paid retainership on the pro-rata basis,” the release said.

Earlier, players in Grade A got an annual retainership of Rs 50 lakhs, Gradewhile the amount was Rs 35 lakhs and Rs 20 lakhs for Grades B and C respectively.

Lalchand Rajput, who was cricket manager during the Twenty20 World Cup, has been appointed manager for the seven-match one-day series against Australia.

Former India captain Nari Contractor was chosen for the annual CK Nay-udu Lifetime Achievement award. The former Test op-ener will receive Rs 15 lakh, a trophy and a citation. “I am happy and proud to be nominated for the award,” said the left-handed bat.

Manohar next chief

Shashank Manohar was declared the president-elect of the BCCI ahead of its 78th AGM on Friday and will succeed Sharad Pawar next year. Nagpur-based lawyer Manohar is the only person to have sent in his nomination for the post of president-elect, BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said.

Contracted players:

Grade A:  Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan. Grade B: VVS Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Wasim Jaffer, S Sreesanth, Dinesh Kaarthick, R P Singh, Virender Sehwag.

Grade C: Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Ramesh Powar, Munaf Patel, Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Suresh Raina. Grade D: Rohit Sharma, Joginder Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Ishant Sharma, Ranadeb Bose, Mohammad Kaif, Cheteshwar Pujara, Parthiv Patel, S Badrinath, Aakash Chopra, Yusuf Pathan.