India's cricketers must cut down on their
commercial dealings, the country's former captains have
recommended to the Board of Control for Cricket in India while
reviewing the team's World Cup debacle and suggesting ways to
move forward.
Seven former Indian captains - Sunil Gavaskar,
Kapil Dev, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Ravi Shastri, Kris Srikkanth,
S Venkataraghavan and Chandu Borde - met the BCCI bigwigs and
discussed a variety of issues. It is understood that there was
no specific discussion on individual players, the performance of
the team in the World Cup or the performance of Greg Chappell as
coach. Instead, the captains, who had come to the meeting armed
with a number of points, looked forward to what needed to be
done to improve the health of Indian cricket in general.
One of the suggestions put forward was related
to player endorsements, with the panel suggesting that the
players take the board's permission before entering into a
contract. They also added that a copy of the contract should be
submitted to the BCCI in order to ensure that there is no clause
therein related to performance-based incentives. Also, not more
than two or three players must endorse a product other than
those by BCCI sponsors, they felt.
"This was one of the most constructive meetings
I have ever attended with the board," one of the captains told
Cricinfo. "We discussed some crucial aspects, one of the key was
strengthening junior cricket. I don't want to give too many
specific details, but here's one example: Tiger Pataudi spoke of
how players learned how to dive and anticipate in fielding when
they were 15, and not 25, so more focus needed to be given to
the quality of coaching, umpiring and wickets at that level, so
that no aaltu-faltu cricketers come through to the highest
level."
Here are the salient points discussed
*Strengthening of domestic cricket to ensure
the participation of international cricketers. The
international calendar can be adjusted by 6-8 weeks to
include these cricketers.
*Improving wickets: The BCCI must ensure
"sporting and lively wickets" which are prepared under the
supervision of the pitches committee.
*Players must take the board's permission
before entering into an endorsement contract. A copy of the
contract should be submitted to the BCCI in order to ensure
that there is no clause therein related to performance-based
incentives. Also, not more than two or three players must
endorse a product other than those by BCCI sponsors.
*The Ranji Trophy Elite group should be
trimmed to 10 teams instead of the current 15 and the
matches should be played on a round-robin league basis to
improve the quality of domestic cricket
*The selectors should be appointed on a
full-time basis and with payment involved.
*Greater care should be taken in the
appointment of selectors to the junior selection committee.
* The Indian team must have a pool of 30
cricketers who should be rotated so that no player plays
more than 80 days in a year.
