Contracts for Mumbai Ranji cricketers

The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has announced that their Trophy cricketers would be put under a contract system from the coming season. The grading will depend on their seniority and number of matches played.

"It will be a graded system of payment by which the players would be contracted and paid varying amounts depending on the seniority and number of matches they have played," said Lalchand Rajput, the MCA joint secretary was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India. "We are trying to work out a system and this would be introduced before the new season. The senior players as well as the senior selection committee chairman [Milind Rege] are a part of the process."

Rege clarified that apart from Sairaj Bahutule, who is reported to have shown interest in joining Maharashtra, no other Mumbai cricketer had spoken to him about leaving in search of better financial prospects. "I have been reading media reports that some players are planning to leave us. We cannot stop anyone if they feel they would be getting better financial reward. But none, barring Bahutule who has talked to me informally, has even approached the MCA on this count," he said. "If there's a need to change the scenario [of payment] we will do so as we are trying to do with the contract system."