'A' for Sourav The Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided to retain Sourav Ganguly as a grade A player in the contracts’ list for the 2006-07 season. The fresh gradations, actually effective from October 1, 2006, were announced on Saturday. On the face of it, it may not mean much as the contracts will be negotiated afresh within a few months, but the gradations committee (Pawar, secretary Niranjan Shah and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar) has given Sourav the respect he deserves.

The board president, Sharad Pawar himself was instrumental behind the decision of retaining Saurav in Grade A. “When the statistics were placed before Mr Pawar, he felt there was no reason to downgrade Sourav… He went to the extent of wondering whether he had to be penalised for not being picked… Mr Pawar also spoke about Sourav’s seniority,” a top BCCI source told a correspondent of The Telegraph recently.

In power from end-2005, Pawar has mostly been taking a pro-Sourav line. Vengsarkar, though, didn’t give any hint of personal preference. “There’s a criteria in place… Grading players isn’t about personal likes or dislikes… Both seniority and performance count,” he said. While Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni have been promoted to grade A, four — V.V.S.Laxman, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag and Irfan Pathan — have been demoted to B. Out totally are Mohammed Kaif (grade B) and Murali Kartik (grade C).

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With inputs from The Telegraph