Money order posted, finally

The much-debated contract system for graded payment to 17 Indian cricketers would be implemented from October 1 this year with seven of them, including skipper Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, placed in the top bracket that will be given an annual retainership of Rs. 50 lakh. Announcing the scheme, BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya told reporters among the four other cricketers in the Grade A are Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman, Virendra Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh. The Grade B category which fetches Rs. 35 lakh per year while the retainership for the Grade C players is Rs 20 lakh. Dalmiya said the players would enter into the annual contract with the board and it would be reviewed at the end of each term. He said the cricketers for contract payment were picked by the board’s gradation committee on the basis of their performance.

Dalmiya said as per the scheme, 20 players would be given contracts every year and this year remaining three spots might be filled up during the year. If any cricketer played three Test matches and 10 one-dayers during the year, he would be offered a contract under Grade-C. The 17 players were picked by the committee consisting of himself, board secretary SK Nair, national selection committee chairman Syed Kirmani and coach John Wright.

THE GRADING

Group A: Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh
Group B: Yuvraj Singh, Mohd Kaif, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra, Ajit Agarkar, L Balaji
Group C: Parthiv Patel, Aakash Chopra and Murali Kartik

THE REVISED MATCH FEES

• Tests: Home: Rs 2 lakh; Abroad: Rs 2.40 lakh
• ODIs: Home: Rs 1.60 lakh; Abroad: Rs 1.85 lakh