Nehra rewarded with raise; Irfan demoted

Delhi pacer Nehra, who made a fine comeback into the one-day squad after being in the wilderness, did not have a BCCI contract in the previous year.
Irfan, currently playing in 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 pacer Praveen Kumar also benefited in the new contracts announced by the BCCI for 40 players as he got a boost from Grade C (Rs 25 lakh) to B. The Board retained the same nine as last year in Grade A which is worth Rs 60 lakh. India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and champion batsman Sachin Tendulkar, in his 21st international season, were expectedly given Grade A contracts along with Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.
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 wicket keeper Dinesh Karthik, upgraded from D to C while leg-spinner Piyush Chawla got demoted to Grade D from C.