After a series of evasive action, in the manner of ducking bouncers, the cricket administration of the country executed its first positive stroke. Instead of taking Rupert Murdoch’s Global Cricket Consortium (GCC) head-on, for non-payment of World Cup dues, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, at a crucial meeting last week, decided to resolve the whole messy issue across the table with the ICC members, rather than directly dealing with GCC.

This decision was taken by the BCCI president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, after he had been requested by the newly-elected ICC Chief, Ehsan Mani, not to rake up the errors of commission and omission that GCC might have been accused of in marketing the World Cup 2003.

This is just as well, for when it comes to demanding payment that is due to the Indian team, the GCC does not come into the picture. The GCC may have a grouse against India, Sri Lanka and England on the question of violation of a particular clause in the contract, relating to ambush marketing, but the final responsibility of paying the teams is the responsibility of the ICC.

It was the outgoing ICC Chief, Malcolm Gray’s parting kick to deny India its due share of $9 million on a very flimsy ground that the Indian players were guilty of breach of contract, without specifically mentioning what the violations were. He only quoted GCC’s losses.

At the ICC meeting in London last month, Dalmiya had threatened to take legal recourse to recover the Indian team’s dues. He insisted further that the GCC had lost money because of its own poor marketing strategy. He said that he would press for a thorough investigation of the haphazard manner in which World Cup marketing was handled.

Ehsan Mani took time to settle down as the ICC Chief, and after studying the entire contract issue, advised Dalmiya not to rush matters and also not to move court, as the matter was not such that it could not be solved by sitting across the table. Dalmiya has heeded the advice and at the BCCI meeting recently, made an announcement that the BCCI would not precipitate the issue by dragging the matter to court.

Irrespective of the ultimate receipt of its dues amounting to $9 million, Dalmiya has promised to clear all the money that is due to the Indian players plus a fabulous bonus to all the members of the World Cup team, including foreign personnel, the coach, trainer and physio.

Everything seems to be on paper so far and the players, who are not exactly starving, have a lot to collect by way of payments and other promises. The members of the Indian World Cup team, as also coach John Wright, trainer Adrian le Roux, who has since quit, and physio Andrew Leipus, have already been presented certificates of ownership of a fabulous seven-star duplex flats each, at the picturesque Amby Valley in Lonavala, 80 kilometers from Bombay. The flats will be ready in January next year. Their benefactor is the industrial house that is the official sponsor of the Indian team.

It was sad, however, to hear that the members of the Indian team have not been paid even their normal fees and share of the logo royalty for the last 12 months. In other words, they went through the last West Indies tour, the England tour, the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka , the home series against the West Indies, the New Zealand tour and the World Cup without receiving any payment whatsoever..

This indeed was shocking for a team representing the richest cricket body in the world. A belated clarification that came about suggested that the BCCI’s sponsors and the world TV rights holders had defaulted in their payment amounting to $50 million and the BCCI had even to move court to get the recovery process expedited.

Each player is due a total amount upto 1.7 crores rupees ($17 million ) each. So in the last 12 months, the players have been living off moneys made out of personal endorsements and their allowances. Since the likes of Srinath and Mohammed Kaif hardly have any endorsement contracts, they could be said to have lived in the poor house, as compared to other players.

The latest, however, is that all the back payments are to be made in a few days. On top of this will be their share of the World Cup payment and special bonus. Those who envy the Indian cricketers for the fabulous amount of money they make, ought now to pause and think.