da doce： Rahul Dravid, captain of the Indian team, has said that was not correct toproject the endorsement issue as a conflict of commercial interests of the players and the board
da leao： Anand Vasu08-Apr-2007
Rahul Dravid: ‘ The interests of the players and the BCCI are inclusive and not exclusive’ © AFP
Rahul Dravid, captain of the Indian team, has said that it was not correct to”project this whole issue [endorsements] as a conflict of commercialinterests of the players and the BCCI,” in a release sent out to the mediaon Sunday afternoon. “Let me clarify that there is no conflict between theplayers and the BCCI. The interests of the players and the BCCI areinclusive and not exclusive,” he added.Dravid then sought to make it clear that there was no misunderstandingbetween the BCCI and the players. “The BCCI has always been very caringand considerate about the players’ interests and I am sure that the BCCIwould discuss the issue with the players at a suitable time,” he said.”When this opportunity arises then we shall jointly examine the areas ofconcern, iron out the irksome issues and work out apackage that can take care of the collective interests and concerns of theBCCI and the players.”Dravid added that he had spoken to Ravi Shastri, the newly-appointedcricket manager of the Indian team, and a number of players about the issue. “They all feel that, with a healthydialogue with the board, which there always has been, all issues can besorted out.”India’s cricketers are clearly shaken by the developments of the past twodays, with the cricket board striking very close to home, their endorsements, but Dravid called for restraint from the mediaand the public. “We have had a disappointing World Cup and itis important that we all work together as the various stakeholders in thegame to help improve and take our cricket forward.”The players, who have received no official communication from the boardyet on the matter of endorsements, contracts and several other changesannounced at the working committee meeting in Mumbai on Saturday, havecertainly followed proceedings closely through the media. However, giventhe recent show-cause notices issued to Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh,none of the players is taking a chance and talking about the issues onthe record.There have been rumours that the players are considering their legaloptions but this is farfetched given their current relationship with the board.Moreover, Dravid’s statement lends weight to the belief that the players are in no frame of mind for a confrontation with an organisation that is represented by legalheavyweights like Shashank Manohar and Arun Jaitley and headed by a seasoned politician in Sharad Pawar, who clearly means business. And even if they do win, there is little stopping the board from going ahead and notpicking them anyway.The second option before the players is the more radical one of going onstrike, refusing both to sign the contracts in the current form andto play till the issue is sorted out. While this has happened insporting teams and even leagues in other parts of the world, withlock-outs having ruined complete seasons of baseball or basketball inAmerica, it’s hard to see the same working here. If this lot of playerstakes on the board by striking work, there will be others happy to fill the breach.”We are ready for all eventualities,” said a board official. “In thepast we have adopted a very defensive mindset and it has not helped.After all, we are entrusted with running cricket in thecountry.”What sections of the board are stressing on is the fact that it is theirduty not merely to look out for the commercial interests of the Indiannational team but also of domestic cricketers and Under-19 cricketers.Earlier, 26% of the board’s gross revenue was spent on player payments,with 13% going to the national team. Now, however, the board takes only30% of the media rights money into account when calculating the grossrevenue. In either case, the money that is spent on the payments ofdomestic cricketers comes from the deals that the board makes for thenational team.There are also several misconceptions about whom these new regulationswill affect. The board has made it amply clear that all pre-existingcontracts will be honoured, and no retrospective action taken. Thismeans that the seniormost players – people like Rahul Dravid, SachinTendulkar and Sourav Ganguly – many of whose existing contracts arelikely to out-last their careers, are unlikely to be adversely affected.It is people like Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik, whose careersare just taking off, who could be seriously affected.
