Central contracts likely for Indian cricketers by June

There has been plenty of discussion about contracts and payments for Indian cricketers in the last few weeks and fancy numbers have been bandied about in various news reports. In all likelihood, the central-contract system will be in place by June and around 20 players will be selected for this purpose. Sadly for the domestic cricketers, however, the news of their impending pay rise was an exaggerated one.

Professor Ratnakar Shetty, the joint secretary of the board, clarified this in Mumbai and said: "We had planned to implement the contract system before the Australia tour, but it didn't work out. Then we went to Pakistan and there was no time.

"The BCCI and the players have agreed on some basic principles," added Shetty. "There will be not more than 20 centrally contracted players, in three grades, and the match-fee structure would be that those in the playing XI would get 'X' amount and the others would get half of that. The contracts will be valid for a year. If a player is injured in the period in which he is contracted, he will be protected by the contract."

If everything has already been agreed, then why hasn't anything been implemented? "The legal document is yet to be drawn up," explained Shetty. "This takes time because the lawyers from both sides have to put in their contributions. At the moment the contract that was presented by the players has been vetted by the Board's lawyers and they have raised a few issues for discussion. We are at a stage when we are nearing the completion of this process."

During India's last tour of England, in 2002, a contract crisis of a different kind erupted with the players having to sign ICC contracts in which certain clauses required them to break existing personal contracts. At the time the lack of a player's association was a moot point, as the original association was defunct, and this gave birth to the Indian Cricket Players' Association.

But, has this association actually played a part in sorting out the central contract system? "I don't think they [ICPA] have had a role to play because it has been a direct interaction with the players," said Shetty, who has been associated with the contract process for the last three years.

"Initially we used to discuss only with Anil [Kumble], Sachin [Tendulkar], Sourav [Ganguly] and Rahul [Dravid] but, at the last meeting, which was held in October 2003 in Delhi, we invited Virender [Sehwag], Harbhajan [Singh] and Zaheer [Khan] also. Mr Dalmiya wanted to speak to the players and find out what the common points of interest were with regard to the contracts. So, it was these seven cricketers who were actually involved in the modalities of finalising the contract.

That done, the time will soon come to decide which grade each player is to be awarded. "The selection committee will choose the 20 players who will be awarded contracts," said Shetty. "Then there will be another committee that decides who fits in which grade. The value of a players, in terms of his performance in the previous season and his seniority would be taken into consideration when deciding which grade he falls into."

With no international cricket on at the moment, the players and the board have a window of opportunity to sit down and sort this matter out once and for all. And, it's likely that India will have centrally contracted cricketers for the first time in its history, by June, well in time for the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka, the senior team's next assignment.

Shetty also clarified that the recent news about domestic cricketers getting a massive pay hike - upto Rs 52,000 per match - was just a false dawn. Shetty said that player would recieve Rs 4000 per match day, an equivalent amount would go into his benevolent fund account.

Therefore, someone playing in a four-day Ranji match would recieve a payment of Rs.16,000. The same amount would also go into his benevolent fund account, and this sum accrues till his retirement, when he gets his total dues.

"The board took a decision last year that 26% of the gross income of the board will be used for payment of cricketers. Of this, 13% will be used for domestic cricketers and 13% for international cricketers. Accordingly the payment scheme for domestic cricketers has already been implemented," explained Shetty. "Of the 13%, 10.4% will be used for senior cricket and the remaining for junior cricket.

"The formula that has been worked out for domestic cricket is Rs 4000 per player per match day. This they get in cash and an equal amount goes to the benevolent fund. This is a formula which has already been implemented."

Recent media reports suggested that senior players stood to gain more than their less-experienced counterparts, but Shetty put that myth to rest. "There is nothing like graded payment for domestic cricket. All members of the playing eleven - irrespective of seniority - will get the same amount and the non-playing members of the squad will get 50% of this."