Yuvraj, Kohli and Ishant promotes to Grade A contracts

The cricket control board of India BCCI Working committee has announced the contract grades of players in Kolkata. The all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and pacer Ishant Sharma were named in the Grade A contract list. Surprisingly Ashish Nehra has been omitted from the list of Contract players.

Yuvraj Singh was back to Grade A list of contract, after being demoted to Grade B following his disastrous form where he almost loses his place in the team. Yuvi was to Grade A after his Man-of-the-Series performance in the World Cup. While Virat Kohli consistent performance scored 995 runs in 2010 and over 1000 runs in 2011ensured his place as Grade A player. Ishant Sharma has raised his game standards and been performing well at the highest level for India gained him Grade A. 

However, the surprising omission was Ashish Nehra, who was part of India's winning World Cup campaign and a B-Grade player last year. Earlier he was ignored for England one-day series, where he expressed his disfavor over exclusion. He even publicly claimed his wonder after also being announced he was fit to play.

The spinners who were showing most significant performance in recent times, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja were promoted to Grade B, in addition with Rohit Sharma who moved from Grade C. Rahul Sharma, whe need to make his debut for Team India was also earned a contract, coming in at Grade C after being part of the T20, ODI and recent Test squads for India. 

The other important major decision taken by BCCI committee was IPL matches will now be a List A matches. Until now the domestic 50-over competitions, with some 40-over ones also included recently are under List A matches, but now IPL matches will now be added to the list.

Contracted Players List: 

Grade A: (Rs. 1 crore per annum) MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma. 

Grade B: (Rs. 50 lakhs per annum) Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, R Ashwin, Rohit Shamra, Ravindra Jadeja. 

Grade C: (Rs. 25 lakhs per annum) S Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane, Munaf Patel, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Wridhiman Saha, Parthiv Patel, S Badrinath, Manoj Tiwary, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Kartik, Jaidev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron. 

Afridi: I saw Sachin's shiver against Akhtar

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi added fuel ot his ex-teammate claims that India’s great batsmen, Sachin Tendulkar was uncomfortable against his pace. Conterversial prone Afridi even added that he once witnessed the Indian batsman ‘trembling’ while facing the Rawalpindi express.

‘Boom Boom’ Shaid Afridi retired after revolting against the his own Board and has a history of making controversial remarks. He said that Tendulkar was uneasy against Akhtar, and backed his ex-pacer claims in which he made in his recently-launched autobiography 'Controversially Yours'.

The little master Sachin Tendulkar was scared of Shoaib. Afriid claims that he seen it and he was fielding at square leg, saw his legs were shivering when Shoaib bowling to him. Afridi went on to state that Tendulkar was also uncomfortable against Saeed Ajmal in tense game of India vs. Pakistan in World Cup match.

During the World Cup game, Sachin even looked scared facing Saeed Ajmal, he was given plenty of chances by them and tentative in th crease. It's not a big deal, players do feel the pressure at times and it becomes difficult. Afridi's comments in support of Akhtar come hardly within days of the launch of the autobiography, which created a anger in India with several former players and BCCI officials slamming the speedster for making tall claims in the book.

Shoaib Akhtar had a history of disciplinary violations and had also been banned during his career, had made disparaging comments about Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Earlier this year after the World Cup semi-final loss to India, Afridi had slammed the Indian media for its very negative approach and said the Pakistani media was a hundred times better.

Ashish Nehra: deeply hurt over non-inclusion

Ashish Nehra, left-arm fast bowler has said that he was deeply hurt after being left out India's squad for the first two ODIs against England. Nehra missed out World Cup final with a broken finger, and since he has been out of action. However, he has declared himself fit and resumed training, and said that he has submitted the his- fitness certificate too.

Delhi pacer said that he still don't know where exactly wnet worng in the selection, after being India's highest wicket-taker in ODIs since his comeback in 2009. Also, till the Pakistan match in which he was fractured his finger, didn't have any major injury issues. Since his comeback, Nehra has been MS Dhoni's main weapon to break partnerships in the absence of Zhaeer.

Nehra said that please check the records, which India bowler has bowled maximum number of overs at the death for last two years. Although, he was well-known for his recurring injuries, Nehra enjoyed a fairly consistent run in the team for two years after his comeback. Nehra injured his finger attempting a low catch from Misbah-ul-Haq in the World Cup semi-final.

The World Cup semi-final against Pakistan, in which Nehra bowled 10 overs for 33 runs and 2 wickets. He fractured the bones of his right fingers in five places and subsequently had to have surgery in Australia that required bone grafts and parts of bone were taken from his wrist and grafted onto his fingers.

He skipped the IPL due to the injury, and was not picked for the ODIs against England in September. Now, if he don't have an option, he might have to pick and choose and play Ranji Trophy. If the board allows it, Nehra can go and play in the Big Bash of Australia's domestic Twenty20 or Pro-40 of South Africa's 40-over competition.