The Cricket Association of Nepal on Monday announced the annual player contracts of both men’s and women’s national cricket teams for the year 2024.

According to the country’s cricket governing body, the men players in Grade ‘A’ will get paid Rs100,000 per month—which is an increment of Rs40,000 from the previous central contract.

Kushal Bhurtel has earned promotion to the Grade ‘A’, while national captain Rohit Paudel, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Dipendra Singh Airee and Aasif Sheikh have retained their Grade ‘A’ category.

A total of 30 men cricketers have been awarded the contract for the year. The players have been divided into five categories.

Kushal Malla, Gulshan Jha, Bhim Sharki, Lalit Rajbanshi, Aarif Sheikh and Abhinash Bohara are in the Grade ‘B’ and will receive Rs70,000 per month.

The Grade ‘C’ includes Binod Bhandari, Arjun Saud, Sundeep Jora and Pratish GC. They will earn Rs55,000 per month.

The Grade ‘D’ players will get Rs35,000 per month. Pawan Sarraf, Sagar Dhakal, Anil Sah, Bibek Yadav, Aakash Chand, Basir Ahamad and Surya Tamang are included in the category ‘D’.

CAN has included the Emerging category for the first time including one player each from different provinces. Dipesh Kandel (Koshi), Rupesh Singh (Madhesh), Rijan Dhakal (Bagmati), Bipin Khatri (Gandaki), Dev Khanal (Lumbini), Arjun Gharti (Karnali) and Hemant Dhami (Sudurpaschim) are in this group. They will earn Rs25,000 a month.

CAN has provided a central contract to 19 women players. The cricket association has almost doubled their salary but the gender pay gap is still huge.

Women’s national team skipper Indu Barma, Rubina Chhetry and Sita Rana Magar are in the Grade ‘A’ and will earn Rs50,000 per month.

Women cricketers in Grade ‘B’ will get Rs35,000, while those from Grade ‘C’ and Grade ‘D’ will draw Rs30,000 and Rs25,000 respectively.

Kabita Kunwar is the only woman player in the Grade ‘B’. Grade ‘C’ includes Puja Mahato and Asmina Karmacharya and Grade ‘D’ includes Apsari Begam, Kabita Joshi, Sangita Rai, Kajol Shrestha and Bindu Rawal.

Sony Pakhrin, Khusi Dangol, Jyotsinka Marasini, Kanchan Shrestha, Rubi Poddar, Shristi Jaisi, Samjhana Khadka and Sana Praveen in the list of women’s emerging category. Each of them will get Rs20,000 monthly.