The BCCI’s decision to give a bonus to the Indian team, which got into the World Cup finals, is tremendous news. It is a fitting recognition of the efforts put in by the players and the untold joy that they brought to their countrymen by their performances throughout the tournament. The manner in which they picked themselves up after the huge defeat against Australia and stormed into the finals was terrific. That they were then beaten by the same team, which is by far the best team in the world in both forms of the game, is no reason to not recognize the efforts that they put in.
The BCCI also needs to be complimented for remembering the support staff and giving them a bonus though why they were not given the same as the players is a mystery. After all, they also played no small part in the campaign and the way the physio and trainer got Nehra fit to play and for the rest of the team to have a relatively injury-free Cup is a tribute to the skills that these men possess and that’s why they also should have got the same as the players did. If the reserves who didn’t play a single game in the entire World Cup campaign can get a share in the bonus then the backroom boys that is the support staff also deserve the same for they may have worked harder than the reserve players.
Anyway its good to know that the BCCI has been so generous and it speaks well of those in charge of decision making that they are not averse to recognizing player efforts. No longer are Board officials treating the Board money as their personal money and are realizing that the money coming into the Board coffers is due to the popularity of the game, which is entirely due to the player performances. The cynics might say that it is a clever move to offset the newly formed Players’ Association from making their demands on behalf of the players and pre-empting that by announcing the bonuses and the distribution of Board profits. Whatever it maybe the BCCI deserves a pat on the back for their gesture and hopefully the players will realize that doing consistently well has its rewards too.
Even as the BCCI is announcing bonuses to the Indian squad that brought glory to the country, it has also announced that it is going to fight for its share of the World Cup fees that have been withheld by the ICC because of compensation claims made against ICC by aggrieved parties. This may well be a long drawn out process and may have to go to arbitration too. Perhaps it might be a good idea if the Board were to find out who are claiming compensation. Is it the sponsors or is it the TV rights holders or both or are there more parties to the compensation claim? If it is the sponsors, then since the majority were from India the BCCI could well sit down with them and sort it out.
Do not forget that at the height of the controversy last year before the Champions Trophy, most Indian sponsors had said that they had no real objections to the amended player terms for the Indian players and all that they wanted was for the best and strongest Indian team to take part in both the Champions Trophy and the World Cup. Did the sponsors play the nationalistic card at that time and are now asking for compensation? Since the rest of the teams signed the player terms before the Champions Trophy and none was used by the sponsors for any imaging or endorsing it is quite clear that only the Indian players were the ones that the sponsors wanted and in such a scenario it is perfectly understandable that their player terms should be different from the other team players.
What the Indian players should remember is that after all the talk of solidarity that was heard before the Champions Trophy, they were left to fend for themselves not just by the other teams but also by FICA. It is in this context that the Indian players must realize that they have a unique value to world cricket and they are better off being represented by their own association who know the ground realities better than have representation by a body which will use the power that Indian players bring to the negotiating table only to benefit others who have no real interest in Indian cricket and who have let them down in the not too distant past.
The BCCI also must now look seriously at having the players under contract to them and have a gradation system that recognizes seniority and player status. The simplest method is to go by the number of Tests and one-dayers that a player has played and the player with the most like Tendulkar goes into the highest grade by virtue of the Tests and ODIs he has played so far. It is a system that is far more likely to be accepted than any arbitrary one where some players are put in a higher or lower grade than they deserve. Let what they have already done for the country be recognized than what they might potentially do in the season, which will in any case automatically be recognized the following year when new contracts have to be made. All this has to be done soon as India embark on a season of hope as they go to Australia later in the year with a realistic chance of beating the World champions if not in the Test series then at least in the limited overs triangular that they play along with Zimbabwe.
The BCCI has begun the season well with the announcement of the bonuses and it’s now time to consolidate the good start into a winning one for Indian cricket. (Professional Management Group)
