Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh were not handed a central contract as the BCCI announced a pruned list of 25 players under its retainership for the ongoing season that runs from October 1, 2013 to September 30, 2014.

Sehwag and Zaheer were in Grade A last season, while Harbhajan was in Grade B. the three-member panel comprising BCCI president N Srinivasan, secretary Sanjay Patel and chief selector Sandeep Patil left them out because "they played very little for India" last season.

"Sehwag, Zaheer and Harbhajan barely played for India last season, so we decided not to give them central contract," a top BCCI official told The Indian Express. Sehwag played six Tests and two ODIs last season, while Zaheer and Harbhajan played three Tests each and didn't feature in the ODIs.

Suresh Raina, however, made a surprise entry to the top grade despite not playing a Test since August 2012. "Raina has been given a Grade A contract because he's a proven match-winner in limited-overs cricket."

Only five cricketers were given Grade A contract for Rs 1 crore each. Apart from Raina, skipper MS Dhoni, Ravi Ashwin, Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar, who is eligible for a two-month retainership.

Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan have risen to Grade B. Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh, on the other hand, were downgraded to the middle slab. The list has been trimmed from 37 to 25 this time around.

Meanwhile, R Vinay Kumar has been brought back to the ODI side for the three matches against West Indies after Mumbai medium pacer Dhawal Kulkarni sustained a foot injury.

GRADE A - Rs 1crore: S Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, V Kohli, R. Ashwin, S Raina.

GRADE B - Rs 50 lakh: G Gambhir, Y Singh, P Ojha, I Sharma, M Vijay, S Dhawan, U Yadav, C Pujara, R Jadeja, B Kumar, R Sharma.

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