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| August 30, 2002 | Friday | Jamadi-us-Saani 20, 1423 |
Indians offer compromise in contract dispute
LONDON, Aug 29: India’s players will send a compromise proposal to their cricket board Thursday in an attempt to end a sponsorship row threatening their participation in the prestigious ICC Champions Trophy next month.
Former international Ravi Shastri, who is representing the players, said they were willing to make some concessions but added new negotiations would have to be held before next year’s World Cup to finally resolve the matter.
“Their rights have been taken for granted and at times abused,” he said. “This proposal would be for the Champions Trophy alone.”
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has demanded that players agree not to endorse products of companies competing with official tournament sponsors. That agreement would last 30 days either side of events.
The Indian players, several of whom have lucrative personal sponsorships, argued that the ICC had not consulted them and had thus infringed their personal commercial rights.
“The players are willing to ask their sponsors to back off for the 18 days of the Champions Trophy, from television and print media,” said Shastri.
“The ICC playing contract is totally unacceptable and the players cannot be forced to sign.”
The ICC, the sport’s world governing body, has called for national boards to get their players into line by Friday. Several other squads, Australia and England among them, have agreed to sign up after initially threatening a mass boycott.
India have drawn up an expanded 25-man squad, to be whittled down to 14, as a safeguard should its leading players refuse to take part in the tournament.
Niranjan Shah, scretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, said Thursday that the board could not control the players.
Shah, in Dubai for an ICC executive board meeting, said: “The players have now set some conditions...there is nothing that we can do.
BCCSL refuses demands
COLOMBO: With just 24 hours remaining before an ICC ultimatum, the row over contracts appeared no closer to a solution in Sri Lanka as its cricket board claimed it was unable to meet the demands of its players.
The Board of Control for Sri Lanka (BCCSL) is adamant that demands put forward by the Sri Lanka Cricketers Association (SLCA) on behalf of the national cricketers ahead of next month’s ICC Champions Trophy are unrealistic given the current cash flow situation of the board.
The SLCA demanded 30 percent of guarantee money paid by the ICC to the BCCSL for hosting the ICC Champions trophy. This was in addition to the monthly payments the contracted players received.
“We are currently not in a position to meet the demands put forward by the Cricketers Association because financially it has not been a good year or us,” said a BCCSL spokesman.
“I think it unfair by the cricketers to make such a demand. They are trying to capitalise on a situation. I don’t think they are seriously affected by the conditions laid down by the ICC,” he said.
The BCCSL recently published their statement of accounts which showed a deficit of Rs. 48 million and sources said that with hardly any international cricket being played in Sri Lanka this year, there was barely any revenue being accrued to meet the demands the players are making.—Agencies
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