His prolonged slump in form notwithstanding, Rahul Dravid [ Images ] retained his place in Grade A as the BCCI on Monday offered new contracts to 37 players.

The players have been clubbed in four grades in the new contract which would cover the October 2008 - September 2009 period, BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan said in a statement.

The quartet of Virender Sehwag [ Images ], Gautam Gambhir [ Images ], Harbhajan Singh [ Images ] and VVS Laxman [ Images ] were promoted to Grade A where they joined Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ], M S Dhoni [ Images ], Zaheer Khan [ Images ] and Yuvraj Singh [ Images ].

All nine cricketers will get an annual retainership of Rs 60 lakhs.

Delhi [ Images ] pacer Ishant Sharma [ Images ] and Tamil Nadu batsman S Badrinath along with Rohit Sharma [ Images ] were greatly benefited as they jump to Grade B from the previous Grade D.

R P Singh, Munaf Patel [ Images ], Suresh Raina [ Images ], and Irfan Pathan [ Images ] have been also been offered Grade B contracts which would earn them an annual retainership of Rs 40 lakh.

However, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik [ Images ] had a steep downslide as he was pushed to Grade D from his Grade B place in the previous year.

Paceman S Sreesanth [ Images ] and opening batsman Wasim Jaffer [ Images ] have also been dropped from Grade B to C, which also includes Piyush Chawla [ Images ], Yusuf Pathan [ Images ], Praveen Kumar [ Images ], Pragyan Ojha [ Images ] and Amit Mishra [ Images ], who would pocket Rs 25 lakh as annual retainership.

As many as 14 players have been offered Grade D contracts which would make them richer by Rs 15 lakh. The players in this category are Karthik, Robin Uthappa [ Images ], Parthiv Patel [ Images ], Manpreet Gony, Cheteshwar Pujara [ Images ], Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli [ Images ], Ashok Dinda [ Images ], Wriddhiman Saha, Chetanya Nanda, Murali Vijay [ Images ], R Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan [ Images ] and Sudeep Tyagi [ Images ].

GRADE 'A' (Rs 60 lakhs): Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, M S Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, V V S Laxman [ Images ], Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.

GRADE 'B' (Rs 40 lakhs): R P Singh, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma, S Badrinath and Irfan Pathan.

GRADE 'C' (Rs 25 lakhs): Piyush Chawla, Wasim Jaffer, Yusuf Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra and S Sreesanth.

GRADE 'D' (Rs 15 lakhs): Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Parthiv Patel, Manpreet Gony, Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Kaif, Virat Kohli, Ashoke Dinda, Wriddhiman Saha, Chetanya Nanda, M Vijay, R Ashwin, Shikhar Dhawan and Sudeep Tyagi.