Graded payment structure to stay for time being

8220;At present, status quo remains as far as contracts are concerned,8221; said BCCI treasurer N Srinivasan.

8220;At present, status quo remains as far as contracts are concerned,8221; said BCCI treasurer N Srinivasan. What he meant was that the board would let the existing system of graded payments last the tenure of this year till October 2007, before re-establishing talks with the players.

The old system 8212; that the BCCI was determined to change to a non-graded flat payment plus bonuses system 8212; guarantees the top five players an annual retainership of Rs 50 lakh each.

After the working committee of the Board met here today, vice-president Rajeev Shukla said: 8220;Since nine months have already passed in discussions, it was only logical that the existing contract system stands and that more talks will go on with the players in the meantime for next year8217;s contracts.8221;

Though Srinivasan called the talks fruitful and successful, calling it an 8220;internal matter between the players and board,8221; it could be interpreted rightly that the board has announced a temporary truce against the warring players after being cornered on other fronts 8212; all at one go.

It was also learnt that IS Bindra was extremely critical of both Lalit Modi and Srinivasan at the meeting, holding them responsible for the mess the contract issue was in. He had reportedly said that while it was okay to put certain restrictive clauses in, one also had to realise that players had limited career spans.

A lot of words had been exchanged regarding the contracts, the last discussion being between Board treasurer N Srinivasan and the top four players8212;skipper Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Anil Kumble8212;in Bangalore yesterday, but the ice was not broken. However, BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said though the graded payments would remain, the board had yet to decide on which player would be slotted in which category.

BCCI vetoes ICL plans

NEW DELHI: The Board8217;s working committee has vetoed Essel Group8217;s much-vaunted Indian Cricket League ICL and its desire for approval from the BCCI. According to BCCI sources, the board felt 8220;it doesn8217;t need any parallel league from an outside group and dilute the BCCI8217;s importance.8221; And as an indication of the Board8217;s attitude towards it, both Kapil Dev and Kiran More, who had sided with the ICL, have been asked to state clearly whether they are with the Board or the ICL and that they may lose their respective positions within the BCCI.

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Kapil8217;s reply to this might well decide his future at the National Cricket Academy, while the Baroda Cricket Association representative, Samarjit Singh Gaekewad, had been instructed to speak to Kiran More, joint secretary of the association.