Richa Ghosh received maiden national contract as the BCCI announced annual player contracts for the period of October 2020 to September 2021 on Wednesday (May 19). She is the only new addition to list while left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht, batters Veda Krishnamurthy, Dayalan Hemalatha and allrounder Anuja Patil have been dropped from list of 19 contracted players. All four of them were part of the 22 players who received retainers for 2019-20.
There are no increase in retainer amounts and Grade A players Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Yadav will continue to receive an annual fee of Rs. 50 lakhs, while players in Grade B and C will continue to receive Rs. 30 lakhs and Rs. 10 lakhs respectively.
The 17-year-old Ghosh has been given Grade C contract while fellow teenager Shafali Verma, along with batter Punam Raut and left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad, have been upgraded to Grade B. Except for pacer Mansi Joshi, who is in Grade C, all other players are scheduled to travel to England for the Test and limited overs series that starts on June 16.