da mrbet： A gradation system of payment based on performance will be inplace for Indian cricketers before the end of the year but a contractsystem may be introduced in the long run, Board President A CMuthiah said in Chennai on Sunday
da 888： 20-May-2001A gradation system of payment based on performance will be inplace for Indian cricketers before the end of the year but a contractsystem may be introduced in the long run, Board President A CMuthiah said in Chennai on Sunday.”The Board is keen to have a system in place regarding payment offees and other benefits to the players and I think such a system willbe in place by the end of this year,” Muthiah told PTI.”The players, who perform well have to be compensated and suchfinancial schemes will definitely encourage better performance,” hesaid.Muthiah said the proposal in this regard, to be put forward bymember of the Board’s Finance Committee Ratnakar Shetty, would be studiedcarefully before being implemented. “The system needs some in-depthstudy along with the proposal for introduction of gradation onperformance basis”, he said.Muthiah, however, refrained from commenting on how senioritywould affect the payment of players. He also put on hold the contractsystem, which provides that no player should suffer loss of payment inthe event of not playing due to injury or being put out of the team,saying, “In the long run, we would like to devise a contract system asin vogue in Australia and other countries for a period of threeyears”.Senior cricketers met Shetty in Mumbai on Thursday topress the Board to introduce the contract system with skipper SauravGanguly saying the system was likely to take final shape after threerounds of meetings with the Board.The cricketers also held discussions regarding the graded paymentsystem based on performance and seniority. Presently 12 players areunder contract with the England and Wales Cricket Board and 23 with theAustralian Cricket Board.Muthiah emphasised that the Board had already introduced amedical benevolent fund under which a retired player or umpiresuffering from ‘terminal illness’ would be paid Rs 3 lakhs forhospitalisation and treatment.It could be said that Muthiah is following in the footsteps of hisillustrious father, the late M A Chidambaram, who had served the Board forover 42 years in various capacities.Chidambaram played a pioneering role in improving the level offacilities of Indian teams on par with international standards.It was he who first conceived the idea of benefit matches forretired cricketers and was instrumental in upholding the rights ofIndian cricketers by hiking their match fees, allowances andfacilities to travel by air, bridging the gap in contractual termsbetween foreign and Indian teams.
