NEW DELHI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh were promoted to grade 'A' while Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, VVS Laxman and Irfan Pathan were demoted to grade 'B' in the Cricket Board's graded payment system.

Skipper Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble were the others in the elite group, which has been cut down by two to a group of six, and provides for an annual retainership of Rs. 50 lakh each.

The contracts, which were announced after a long delay, are for the period October 1, 2006 to September 30, 2007. Apart from the demoted players, the 'B' category, with a Rs 35 lakh retainership package.

"Gradation is based on the performance of the players in the previous season," Shah said. Surprisingly, pace spearhead Zaheer Khan was retained in grade 'C' despite his impressive performance in recent months, along with Gautam Gambhir, S Sreesanth, Suresh Raina, and new faces Wasim Jaffer and Munaf Patel.