He might not be a sure starter in India’s limited-overs XIs nowadays, but Ajinkya Rahane has been given a Grade A BCCI central contract. It is an elite group: only four players have made it to Grade A, others being Test captain Virat Kohli, limited-overs captain MS Dhoni and offspinner R Ashwin.Rahane was the captain when India went to Zimbabwe without Dhoni and Kohli. Rahane had an excellent year with runs in Australia, both in Tests and at the World Cup, to go with his previous year where he scored runs in South Africa and England. Grade A carried a Rs 1 crore retainer.

The BCCI’s contract list for 2015-16

Men’s players
Grade A (Rs 1 crore): MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane
In: Ajinkya Rahane
Out: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suresh Raina
Grade B (Rs 50 lakh): Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammed Shami
In: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suresh Raina
Out: Ravindra Jadeja, Pragyan Ojha
Grade C (Rs 25 lakh): Amit Mishra, Axar Patel, Stuart Binny, Wriddhiman Saha, Mohit Sharma, Varun Aaron, Karn Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul, Dhawal Kulkarni, Harbhajan Singh, S Aravind
In: Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, S Aravind
Out: Pankaj Singh, Vinay Kumar, Manoj Tiwary, Parvez Rasool, Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson, Kuldeep Yadav
Women’s players
Grade A (Rs 15 lakh): Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur, Thirush Kamini
Grade B (Rs 10 lakh): Smriti Mandhana, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Veda Krishnamurthy, Niranjana Nagarajan, Poonam Raut

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was India’s Player of the Series in England in 2014, has been relegated to Grade B as has Suresh Raina. Bhuvneshwar hasn’t been able to replicate his form from the previous year after his return from injury. Since he was given a Grade A contract last year, Raina has made another unsuccessful attempt at a Test comeback, and has had an average time in the ODIs.Test openers M Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan, batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu, and fast bowlers Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami retained their Grade B contracts, which carry a Rs 50 lakh retainer.Ravindra Jadeja, who has made a successful comeback to Tests with the Man of the Match award in Mohali, went down from Grade B to Grade C. After a shoulder injury, he had an indifferent time in international cricket, which led to his being dropped from all formats after the ODIs in Bangladesh in June. Another Grade B contract holder, Pragyan Ojha, whose action came under the spotlight before he came back to domestic cricket with corrections, was not given any contract.The total number of contracts went down from 32 to 26. Pankaj Singh, Vinay Kumar, Manoj Tiwary, Parvez Rasool, Robin Uthappa, Sanju Samson and Kuldeep Yadav lost their contracts. Harbhajan Singh and S Aravind were given Grade C contracts, whose retainer is Rs 25 lakh. Naman Ojha, who made his test debut in Sri Lanka, missed out on a contract as well.Women cricketers were awarded contracts for the first time, with Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur and Thirush Kamini bracketed in Grade A that carries a retainer of Rs 15 lakh. Seven other players were handed Grade B contracts of Rs 10 lakh each.Last year the BCCI had not announced the various retainer fees for the various grades because there had not been an AGM owing to the impasse over IPL corruption issues. The retainer fees have not gone up from what they were in 2013.

East Zone maintained their winning streak defeating North Zone bythree wickets in the Vijay Hazare (Under-16) Trophy Tournament atthe KL Saini Stadium in Jaipur on Friday. East Zone, who hadalready made sure of the trophy, registered their fourth straightwin and ended with eight points. North Zone finished with fourpoints from four matches.East Zone, chasing a target of 228, were struggling at 37 forthree in the tenth over. PJ Das (61 runs of 68 balls) was joinedby A Nandi (59 runs of 81 balls) and they put on 84 runs for thefourth wicket off 17.3 overs. Then N Behera (31 runs of 50 balls)and Nandi added 55 runs off 9.3 overs for the fifth wicket.Towards the end, captain M Talukdar (32 not out of 26 balls)hastened East’s victory, which came in the 47th over.Earlier, electing to bat after winning the toss, North Zone madea good start with M Kholi (39 runs of 69 balls) and R Jaswal (32runs of 34 balls) adding 75 for the first wicket in 14.2 overs.Then Rajan Singh (41 runs of 70 balls) and J Sharma (41 runs of62 balls) put on 87 runs in 20.1 overs for the third wicket. ButNorth Zone, plagued by four run outs, ended with a score of 227for 9 in 50 overs.

Northamptonshire prospered from some unconvincing Glamorgan batting and theaccurate bowling of their own paceman Michael Strong and off-spinner JasonBrown to have the advantage of Glamorgan at Cardiff.Strong took 4-50 and Brown returned 4-56 in the long spell of 31.2 overs.The home batsmen did not benefit from the example of Matthew Elliott andAdrian Shaw, and were dismissed for 198 (still 31 runs behind). The visitorstook that lead to 141 by scoring a further 110-2 by the close.
Matthew Maynard and Adrian Dale did not detain the scorers long, before Keith Newell gave Elliott more substantial support by putting on 54 runs for the fifthwicket. Elliott struggled for 70 minutes to put together six runs but shookof the ties to hit Brown for a straight and shortly afterwards hit GraemeSwann for three boundaries in an over.Newell edged a catch to wicketkeeper David Ripley from Tony Penberthy’s bowling. Ripley also caught Elliott (off Brown) with the Australian left-hander on 76 runs with a six and nine fours from 171 balls. Shaw and Robert Croft picked Glamorgan up from 145-6 only for the latter to be caught by Darren Cousins as the ball looped up gently from a deflection by Adrian Rollins.With Steve Watkin still injured Dale took the new ball for Glamorgan and soon had Rollins caught for his second duck of the match. Then Matthew Hayden took over by scoring his fifty from 70 balls, and when he was caught at the wicket Mal Loye and David Sales played through to the close.

The Goa under-19 team had to struggle all the way in the face of a good bowling performance by Kerala and were perched precariously at the end of the first day with only 71 runs on the board while losing eight wickets along the way in the Cooch Behar Trophy South Zone league match at the Medical College Ground in Trivandrum on Tuesday.Play started only at 1 pm due to overnight rains and put in to bat, Goa made a disastrous start losing opener SS Sandesh (1) in the seventh over of the day. S Santh who picked up the wicket of Sandesh struck again, trapping SD Saheel (7) in front of the stumps. His partner TA Yousaf then removed the other opener AA Swapnil (9). Goa were in dire straits with three of the top order batsmen dismissed and with only 25 runs on the board. But Santh was not finished and he struck once more when he had SK Suraj (4) caught behind.Goa’s innings was in real disarray, when Yousaf shattered the defence of KK Sagun (4) with only 33 runs on the board. Then R David (20) and RA Aditya (14) struggled along to take the Goa innings past the 50-run mark in the 20th over of the innings. But in the very next over Aditya departed, offering a return catch to NK Aneesh.NN Gautham then gave David some company, while taking the score to 71 before he was trapped leg before by Aneesh. David himself did not last long. Seven balls later, he struggled to reach his crease and was run out with no runs added to the score. Almost at once, Goa found some help by way of bad light which put an end to the proceedings. At this stage, Santh had taken three wickets for 17 while Yousaf had two for 23.

Aided by a fine four wicket haul by Mohd Aleem, Karnataka scored anemphatic innings and 147 run win over Goa in their P Ramachandra RaoTrophy (Under-22) match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore onFriday.Resuming at a hopeless 85 for 5 on the final day, Goa’s second inningsfolded up with the addition of just 58 runs. Overnight batsman, AJadhav (27) departed caught in the slips by Mahesh off Chaitra. Then GPhadte (28) was caught behind by Shambal off Chaitra. Dharmichand whoreplaced Chaitra, had N Haglekar (3) caught and bowled off his firstball. Then in the 46th over, Aleem trapped G Narvekar (4)leg before and two balls later had Gonsalves (0) caught behind tosignal victory to Karnataka.Earlier, in reply to a paltry score of 80 by Goa, Karnataka declaredtheir first innings at 370 for nine aided by fine centuries by ARMahesh (103 not out) and S Ponnappa (153). Resuming at 178 for 1, onthe second day, Karnataka lost overnight batsman Amit Kumar (15) inthe second over of the day, bowled by D’Souza. Three overs later newbatsman S Shinde (2) was caught at mid off by Gonsalves off Jakati.This brought in AR Mahesh to the centre. Both Ponnappa and Maheshforged a 92 run partnership for the fourth wicket in 23 overs.Ponnappa after a 306 minute stay departed when he was caught byGonsalves at mid wicket off Jakati. Ponnappa during his stay faced 250balls and found the boundary ropes 15 times and managed to clear itonce. Though wickets kept falling at regular intervals Mahesh went onto complete his century. Mahesh during a 222 minute stay, faced 164balls and hit nine fours and three sixes. Karnataka skipper S Shindedeclared the innings with the score at 370/9.

It was day two on Tuesday at Deccan Gymkhana, Pune, in the Cooch BeharTrophy quarterfinal match between Haryana and Railways. ManvinderBisla who was unbeaten on 181 at the end of the first day’s playcarried on to score a masterly double century of 236. Bisla was severeon Railways bowlers as he went on to smash 28 boundaries and 3 sixes.By the time Bisla was dismissed he added 160 runs with Deepak Joon forthe fifth wicket. Joon who started the day on 35 added to Railway’smisery by notching up a century and went on to make 152. Haryanadeclared at 616/8 on Joon’s dismissal. His 152 came in as few as 191balls and included 16 strokes reached the fence and two that flew overfor sixes. Railways were brought to their knees by Amit Mishra14-7-25-3 and by the close of play were 117/4 in 41 overs with openingbatsman Sriram Yadav on an unbeaten 36 putting up a fight.

Michael Powell played the perfect captain’s innings to boost Warwickshire Bears to a five-wicket win over Northamptonshire Steelbacks at Wantage Road.Powell hammered 78 from only 62 deliveries with a six and seven fours, and his stand of 128 in 20 overs with Dougie Brown (73) enabled the Bears to pass the hosts’ 216-4 with five balls to spare.The pair came together at 82-3 with the game in the balance, but a combination of skilful improvisation, urgent running between the wickets and the occasional meaty blow settled the issue and left Northants still without a Norwich Union League point this season in the wake of three defeats.Only Mal Loye, with an entertaining 90 from 123 balls, came to terms with some accurate Warwickshire bowling in the early stages of the innings. Vasbert Drakes sent down 25 dot balls at the beginning of his stint before conceding a run.Much-needed acceleration came from Alec Swann, with an unbeaten 37 off 21 balls including two big sixes, but it was still a below-par total on a good batting pitch.Kevin Innes then removed Neil Smith and David Hemp to bring the Steelbacks into contention again, and when Dominic Ostler was stumped off Jason Brown the home side sensed an opportunity to turn the match around.But it was to prove their last positive moment of the afternoon, at least until Powell and Brown went in successive overs at the end with the points all but in the bag.

Pakistan gained a morale-boosting victory over Australia in the Day/Night International at Trent Bridge ahead of Saturday’s NatWest Series Final.Having won the toss and elected to bat first Pakistan made 290-9 from their 50 overs and despite half-centuries from Adam Gilchrist and Steve Waugh Australia were restricted to 254 all out, losing by 36 runs. Once again Waqar Younis was the destroyer-in-chief, picking up 6-59.In pursuit of a huge victory target of 291 Australia needed to build a solid platform but they were rocked with the early departures of both Mark Waugh and Matthew Hayden. Waqar Younis, bowling the second over, began with a wide but then bowled a perfect away swinger which nicked the outside edge of Waugh’s bat and was neatly taken by the diving Latif.Left-hander Hayden fell in the same over, although there was some confusion over his dismissal. Replays seemed to indicate that the ball struck only the pad on it’s way through to the ‘keeper. Although the lbw shout looked very close the official scorers maintained that the batsman was caught behind.Adam Gilchrist provided a dynamic response, smashing four boundaries in Waqar’s second over but the Pakistan captain continued his purple streak at the start of his third. Michael Bevan being the next to go, bowled with a ball that nipped back into him and pole-axed his middle stump.An explosive seventh over produced 19 runs and Gilchrist’s assault continued in the next over as successive pulled boundaries rocketed him to a very special 50 (44 mins 29 balls 11×4).At 76-3 after nine overs Saqlain’s off-spin was introduced; Waqar’s first spell, ending with figures of 3-43 from four overs! The first six of the innings (Saqlain/Gilchrist) came in the 12th over and brought the Australian 100 up from just 78 balls.With the score on 111 Saqlain grabbed the prize wicket of the opener as Gilchrist misread the flight and was bowled for 70 (70 mins 44 balls 1×6 12×4). In the same over Damien Martyn edged the wrong’un to Azhar Mahmood at slip and despite the healthy run-rate Australian victory chances appeared remote.Andrew Symonds joined Steve Waugh and provided reassuring support as his skipper advanced to yet another accomplished 50 (89 mins 63 balls 8×4). After 25 overs the pair had lifted the total to 165-5, still on target, and the partnership was soon extended past the 70 mark.With the floodlighting in full force 102 were needed from the final 19 overs when Waqar returned to the attack. The golden arm of the Pakistani captain struck immediately as his opposite number skied him to Saqlain at mid off. Steve Waugh had made 56 from 89 balls.Three balls later Symonds, who’d shared a stand of 77 with his captain, then tried to lift Waqar over deep midwicket but watched as substitute fielder Imran Nazir juggled four times with the ball before holding onto the catch. Waqar’s remarkable figures after five overs now read 5-48.The Australian tail had been left with too much to do by their top order and although Brett Lee hit Waqar for a huge 6 into the Radcliffe Road Stand he lost his off stump the very next ball to give the paceman his sixth wicket.Shane Warne made 14 before hitting Azhar Mahmood to Wasim Akram at cover and despite some stoic hitting from Jason Gillespie and Damien Fleming, Australia had lost their chance of an unlikely win before Gillespie was bowled by Razzaq.Saleem Elahi had earlier top-scored for Pakistan with 79, made out of a total of 290-9. Worryingly though the innings had been disrupted due to crowd disturbances, which forced the players from the field for 19 minutes. The unsightly presence of a boundary heavily ringed with police and stewards allowed the game to finish without a premature pitch invasion, although firecrackers in stands have no place at English cricket grounds.Afterwards Waqar Younis looked forward to the final on Saturday. “One more game to go and hopefully we can do well in that,” he said. “Winning before the final is always a good thing.”It was a great game, we played really well. Especially Saleem Elahi with thebat. It was a very good pitch, winning the toss was a good thing.”Of his own, match-winning bowling he commented: “It’s swinging for me and I hope it will swing for me in the final.”Steve Waugh was unhappy with the Australian performance, however. “We weren’t too flash in the field,” he said. “We missed some early opportunities. We got what we deserved tonight and have got some work to do before the final. We were outplayed by Pakistan tonight.”But he had warm words for Gilchrist, commenting: “Adam Gilchrist did well early on. But some careless shots and the game was all over.”Waugh had harsh words for the spectators that caused him to leave his team off the field during the Pakistan innings, and invaded the pitch at the end of the match.”The stewards tried their best to contain things but you can’t control idiots, can you?” he commented.”You saw the way they behaved after the game and people shouldn’t be allowedto spend £15 to come to a cricket match and think they can do what they want.”But he admitted that the situation at Trent Bridge had been better than at other grounds.”Today there was an improvement in the way things were dealt with but it wasstill not an ideal situation. They put up fences but I don’t think I would have been too keen if I had been a steward stood behind them.”

Dan Goldstraw and Damien Shirazi line up for BAT Sports against their old Lymington team-mates in Tuesday evening’s Southern Electric Contracting Knockout Cup quarter-final at Southern Gardens, 6pm.It’s certainly added spice to an already juicy 24-overs per side third round tie, which should attract a decent-size crowd to BAT’s headquarters.Goldstraw and Shirazi switched their allegiance to Ringwood Road at the start of last season when BAT attained ‘gold’ status – and Lymington didn’t.Goldstraw’s left-arm pace, in tandem with Richard Dibden’s off-spin, will provide a fascinating challenge for Lymington’s potentially explosive Australian import Brian Clemow.On paper, BAT look to have an edge in the bowling department – Lymington may well use three spinners – but the New Forest club have undoubted talent down the order.In addition to Clemow, Glyn Treagus, Ben Craft and Neil Trestrail are all potential match winners in a tie that is unquestionably Southampton’s biggest knockout game in years.Ironically, Havant – who entertain Premier 1 rivals Burridge – are the only one of the quarter-finalists to have previously won the cup.They have actually lifted the trophy on three past occasions – in 1981, 1995 and, more recently, in 1997, when West Indian Wilden Cornwall was let loose on Lymington.Havant are probably favourites this season but Burridge,at full strength, are a useful limited-overs side.Easton & Martyr Worthy have won a few trophies in their time, but Tuesday’s cross-country haul to Rowledge isn’t a tie they will relish.Hampshire YCs all-rounder Chris Yates is back from Cardiff University to bolster Rowledge, who pose a stern threat on their own tight village ground.And what odds on Flamingos upsetting the apple cart and bowling over Premier 1 opponents Andover out in the sticks at The Holt ?On present league batting form, not much, but – like Easton & Martyr Worthy – they aren’t bad in the short game.Andover, though, will probably field Australian Sam Miller – who plays Surrey Championship cricket at Camberley – and his presence could sway the day.The semi-finals are on July 10 and 12, with the final at the Hampshire Rose Bowl Nursery ground on Wednesday August 1.

Hampshire will be hoping to continue their good run, as they seek a fourth successive Norwich Union League win againstr Derbyshire on Sunday.Hampshire will look towards the same side, and hope it produces the right result.Hampshire: Jason Laney, Neil Johnson, Derek Kenway, Will Kendall, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Lawrence Prittipaul, Robin Smith, Shaun Udal, James Hamblin, Chris Tremlett and Alan Mullally.