Reward and recognition - BCCI annual contract for players

Recently I posted about ace Indian shooter Jaspal Rana being appointed chief coach for junior pistol shooters by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) and becoming  entitled to get a monthly salary of INR 50,000.  BCCI is India’s richest sporting body and for the game we have a foreign coach – Duncan Fletcher under whom the team has performed miserably - if you are wondering how much Fletcher is paid for doing all this mess, it is a princely Rs.34 lakhs per month – almost 2 crores for 6 months.  To read that post click here

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), headquartered at Mumbai, India, is the national governing body for all cricket in India. The board was formed in December 1928 as BCCI replaced Calcutta Cricket Club. BCCI is a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. As a member of the International Cricket Council (ICC), it has the authority to select players, umpires and officials to participate in international events and exercises total control over them. Without its recognition, no competitive cricket involving BCCI-contracted Indian players can be hosted within or outside the country.

India crashed out of World T20 ICC tournament held in Sri Lanka recently and in the Champions League now underway – IPL teams fared badly with only Delhi Daredevils earning a berth in the Semi finals.  Now England is to tour India for 4 tests and there would more of the five day longer version of the game.  The  connoisseurs of five-day cricket  who always believes that it is the ultimate joy  were rocked with the abysmal performance of the Team in England and in Australia.   Still, the  0-8 has not have generated the kind of debate, and corrective action, we would have liked.   We have a new Selection committee under the helm of Sandip Patil and theoretically the non-performers must be chopped making way for new prospects.  If not to regain the No. 1 slot, at least to bounce back, some sweeping changes are essential.  There are many players who have been taking their place for granted and performing less than ordinarily. 

Every now and then you hear of  Munaf Patel and even RP Singh could stage a come back ! – our batting woes are confounded – no Dravid, no Laxman, Sachin making his critics speak on his retirement, Dhoni not scoring, Sehwag unsure, Gambhir sure of edges and more.   India has problem at the top, middle order and the late middle order – the tail-enders succumb without fight.  Selectors need to balance and have the best talent ready for 2013 in South Africa and thereafter for New Zealand, England and Australia.  May be time, we thought of different Captains for Tests / One dayers / T20s as also the team – which should not rely only on Virat Kohli to deliver.

The pace bowling cupboard is more bare – Zaheer is a pale shadow of the past and Irfan Pathan is no replacement, but the one who needs to be replaced.   Pragyan Ojha and R Ashwin  have been excellent at home (Ojha 63 wickets in 12 matches, Ashwin 40 in five!) but  outside the subcontinent, you are not going to get this support and pace bowlers must learn to take wickets at least on helpful tracks. 

With this background, are you aware that payment to players is regulated under an annual  contract by the BCCI and that players would continue to get their remuneration irrespective of the fact whether they play in the XI or part of the squad or not !!! 

There are grades A, B & C  - in the recent changes made by the BCCI - Offspinner Harbhajan Singh and seamer Ishant Sharma have been demoted from Grade A to B; while offspinner R Ashwin, who has become the leading spinner for India across all three formats, has been promoted from Grade B to A.  This means that the duo of Harbhajan and Ishant will draw a fixed income of Rs 50 lakh (approx $93,000) each from October 2012 to September 2013, instead of the Rs 1 crore (approx $186,000) that players with the top grade of contracts will get.

BCCI's central contracts committee - consists of president N Srinivasan, secretary Sanjay Jagdale and Sandeep Patil, the chairman of the all-India selection panel  and it has shrunk Grade A from 12 players to nine. There have been no replacements for Ishant, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman in the top category.  Grade A: Rs 1 crore each (approx $186,000) Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin

The committee has also promoted Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane from Grade C, which fetches Rs 25 lakh (around $46,500) annually, to B. Grade B: Rs 50 lakh each (approx $93,000) Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav

Bowlers S Sreesanth and Jaydev Unadkat are omitted from last year's list of 37 players (the same number as this year). Seamer L Balaji and allrounder Yusuf Pathan return to the list, with Grade C contracts, while fast bowler Ashok Dinda is on the list for the first time.   Grade C: Rs 25 lakh each (around $46,500) Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, R Vinay Kumar, Munaf Patel, Abhimanyu Mithun, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha, Parthiv Patel, Manoj Tiwary, S Badrinath, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron, Abhinav Mukund, Ashok Dinda, Yusuf Pathan, Praveen Kumar, L Balaji

That is the money – big money associated with Cricket and that partially explains the way players perform

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

27^th Oct 2012.