Dalmiya to meet players over graded-payments issue

The issue of performance-linked graded payments for India's cricketers is expected to gather momentum again when board officials meet senior players from the Indian team in Bangalore next week to discuss the matter. A report in the Hindustan Times quoted a board official as saying that a draft of the contract had been sent to Sourav Ganguly, who would attend the September 2 meeting with Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.

The issue of graded payments first came up in June last year - immediately after the Indian team returned from their tour of West Indies - when the board announced that 20 players would be offered contracts which would put them into one of four levels. Since then, the board has failed to name the players or firm up the contract.

However, the report said that John Wright, Brijesh Patel, the chief selector, and Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the BCCI, would meet soon to decide on the 20 players. It also stated that the contract would only have three grades, and not four as was originally planned. Players in the top grade would receive an annual retainer fee of Rs 6 million (US$130,000 approx.), while the second and third tier of contracted players would receive Rs 3 million and Rs 1.5 million annually.

The officials are also expected to discuss the process for handing out bonuses to players for wins. According to the terms mentioned earlier, a win against a team ranked higher than India would fetch the players a 100% bonus on the match fee, while a victory against a lower-ranked team would earn them a 50% bonus. Fifty percent of the match fees would be deducted for every defeat. With India ranked a lowly eighth in the ICC's ODI table, the players would have plenty to gain by putting the contract into effect before the home series against New Zealand, who are ranked fifth.