Thanks to India’s under-par performance in the Caribbean, the pending issue of the BCCI players’ contracts has cropped up again, five weeks before it was supposed to.
The senior players and the Board have had differences on certain terms of the contract, something that has caused an impasse — the contracts are annually renewed on October 1 every year, so this time, they’re badly delayed.
Following a meeting between Dravid and Board officials, the BCCI had issued a media release on February 20 that said: “It is mutually agreed that the players’ contracts would be implemented after the return of the team from the World Cup.”
Well, they almost certainly will be back next week and the issue is bound to heat up. The differences are thought to be over the endorsements’ clause, over a performance-based clause, which Board officials are hell-bent on implementing and finally, on the number of contracts to be offered.
The BCCI was keen on cutting down the number of players on the roll from 20 to a single-digit figure, something the players had objected to.
But given India’s disastrous showing, it is likely the BCCI mandarins will hold the upper hand now. BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, however, downplayed the loss. “Though the Cup performance was a disappointment, it was a one-off instance,” Shah said. “The contracts are anyways to be renewed based on the performance from October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2006.”
Does that mean the Cup outing will not be considered during the final talks with players? Shah was non-committal but it seems like it won’t.
{{/usCountry}}Does that mean the Cup outing will not be considered during the final talks with players? Shah was non-committal but it seems like it won’t.
{{/usCountry}}Email author: amol.karhadkar@hindustantimes.com