Stringent clauses in code of conduct

Every Indian player and team official, before leaving on a tour, has to sign an agreement which specifies the do's and dont's during the trip. There have been cases in the past, when a player who has violated one of the clauses in the agreement has been pulled up by the Board of Control for Cricket in India as a disciplinary measure.

One of the most well known is Bishen Bedi being hauled up for giving a TV interview in England during the 1974 tour, something the agreement forbade. Another was the unauthorized trip made to the USA by some cricketers following the tour of the West Indies in 1989. The board retaliated with a ban which the players successfully challenged in a court of law. Some of the clauses have over the years, made for rather odd reading but the players, without much of a choice, have signed rather than speak up on the matter.

If the agreements in the past were strict and binding, the agreements in the wake of the match fixing scandal are even more stringent and almost frightfully restrictive. Only this time, besides players and team officials, even umpires and administrators have been covered. Shortly after the scam broke, the BCCI at its working committee meeting in New Delhi on May 18, constituted a three man sub committee to draft out a code of conduct. The three members were DV Subba Rao, president of the Andhra Cricket Association, Shashank Manohar, former president of the Vidarbha Cricket Association and Ashok Kumbhat, secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.

Over the last two months, the members have worked on a code of conduct report. The three man committee will now meet at Mumbai on July 24 to approve the draft proposals before the final copy is presented to the Union Sports Minister SS Dhindsa at New Delhi on August 1. BCCI president AC Muthiah who is to present the Vision Report of the board to the minister on that day will also submit the code of conduct report for perusal. The BCCI will enforce the code of conduct from the Sahara Cup limited overs series against Pakistan beginning at Toronto from September 9.

In addition to the usual clauses, the new agreement contains these eight new clauses. 1. The players (administrator, team official) should not bet on any match or series of matches or any event. 2. Should not induce or encourage any other person to bet on any match or series of matches or on any event or to offer the facility for such bets to be placed. 3. Should not gamble or enter into any other form of financial speculation on any match or on any event. 4. Should not induce or encourage any other person to gamble or enter into any other form of financial speculation on any match or event. 5. Should not be a party to contriving or attempting to contrive the result of any match of the occurrence of any event. 6. Should not fail to perform on his merits in any match owing to an arrangement relating to betting on the outcome of any match or on the occurrence of any event. 7. Should not induce or encourage any other player not to perform on his merits in any match owing to any such arrangement. 8. Should not provide any information concerning the weather, the teams, the state of the ground, the status of a match, the outcome of a match or the occurrence of any event for money, benefit or otherwise unless such information is provided to any form of media in accordance with an obligation entered into in the normal course and disclosed in advance to the BCCI.

If the player, umpire, team official or administrator is found guilty of any of the breaches in the above eight clauses, the BCCI shall immediately adopt the penalties listed in the appendix, according to the draft copy of the agreement made available to CricInfo. The penalties range from a ban of five years to a ten year ban to a life ban.

The code of conduct severely restricts the public from having access to the cricketers. It is also understood that the wives of cricketers might also not be allowed to accompany them on tours. Hitherto the wives were allowed with the prior permission of the board. The players would also be stopped from using mobile phones in the hotel rooms and dressing rooms on match days. One of the proposals in the draft copy also restricts players from attending private functions during tours and from inaugurating showrooms or distributing prizes. The cricketers have been receiving huge amounts of money and gifts for appearing at these functions and this has been the subject of some controversy of late. There is also a proposal in the agreement stating that phone calls to players were subject to be tapped by officials during the tours. But according to Ashok Kumbhat, one of the committee members, it was unlikely that this would be enforced.