BCCI official slams CoA for rushing with new contracts
Mohd Shami's contract has been withheld after domestic violence allegations
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The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators' (CoA) decision to announce the revised central contracts for India men's and women's (international and domestic) cricketers yesterday has not gone down well with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials. The CoA declared the new contracts (October 2017 to September 2018) for players and also introduced a new A-plus category, which was first reported by mid-day in its January 4 edition. While the cricketers in the A-plus grade will get R7 crore, Grade A, B and C will earn Rs5cr, R3cr and Rs1cr respectively.
Grade C for women now
For the Indian women's cricketers, Grade C has been introduced for the first time. Those in Grade A will earn Rs50 lakh, while Grade B and C will get R30 lakh and R10 lakh respectively. Domestic cricketers' match fee will see a 200 per cent hike, according to the CoA. While a cricketer in the playing XI will earn Rs35,000 in the senior men's category, a reserve player will get Rs17,500. For T20 matches, the match fees will be 50 per cent of the respective category. A BCCI official on condition of anonymity said there was no hurry for the CoA to release the central contracts. "In about 20 days' time, the BCCI media rights for international cricket will be declared. I don't understand what was the hurry for the CoA because by end of this month we would get a clear picture of our finances," the official told mid-day.
'Just a PR exercise'
"This is just a public relations exercise from the CoA," he added. The CoA had decided to finalise the contracts after the BCCI finance committee did not pay any heed to call for a meeting and finalise the proposal which was prepared after discussions with head coach Ravi Shastri, skipper Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. The CoA wanted to finalise the contracts for the purpose of insurance cover to the players before the Indian Premier League begins next month. The BCCI official explained: "The insurance is in place to secure the players' IPL contract money if they get injured while playing for India. It acts as a security to play freely for India and not worry about his IPL fate if there is an injury. So, that aspect is already secured at the moment too."
The CoA decided to withhold Mohammad Shami's contract after the pacer's wife accused him of domestic violence and adultery. "Without a formal complaint lodged against Shami, the CoA has no right to hold back his contract based on reports," said the BCCI official. The official said it is the general body's prerogative to decide on creating the Players Revenue /Compensation Equalisation Fund (PR/CEF) which was initiated by the CoA as stated in the press release. The reason to create this fund is to recognise the fluctuations in the BCCI's actual annual income to which the BCCI will contribute approximately R125 crore from its surplus.
Why no selection meeting?
The BCCI official also claimed that there was no formal selection committee meeting convened to decide on the players' gradation. mid-day recently reported that chief selector MSK Prasad was given charge to finalise the grades for the men's players.
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