da betsson： The Indian board has sacked Kapil Dev as chairman of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) with immediate effect
Anand Vasu in Mumbai21-Aug-2007
The empire strikes back: The Indian board finally decided to call Kapil Dev’s bluff by removing him as chairman of the National Cricket Academy © Getty Images
The timing of a slew of announcements may be incidental but the Board of Control for Cricket in India issued an emphatic, carrot-and-stick response to the Indian Cricket League. On the one hand, it passed the expected strictures on the players, current and former, associating with the ICL; on the other, it rewarded those who stayed behind, hiking payments for first-class cricketers and making the domestic game a far more attractive proposition.The significance was lost in the dry delivery of N Srinivasan, the board treasurer, who said the members of the BCCI unanimously passed all the resolutions put before the special general meeting. This meant that Kapil Dev ceased to be the chairman of theNational Cricket Academy (NCA), with immediate effect, and all the players who joined the ICL would not derive any benefit from the BCCI.”Kapil Dev ceases to be the chairman of the NCA,” said Srinivasan, puttingto an end the long-running speculation over his fate. “AjayShirke will associate as chairman till the next AGM [on September 28], when a new chairman and board will be appointed.” This also means Kapil will no longer be part of the recently formed cricket advisory committee, comprising former India captains,set up to advise the board on an ad hoc basis.Srinivasan was equally unambiguous when replying to a question on the players who have signed up to play in the ICL. “Every individual has the right toassociate with the BCCI or any other organization. If he chooses to bepart of any other organization then it is he who is leaving. If anindividual chooses to associate with someone else it is his decision andwe wish him luck. But he will not be a part of BCCI activities or deriveany benefits from the BCCI.”It was not so much the board that was banning players, Srinivasan stressed, but each individual choosing how he wanted his future to pan out. “It is the player whois deciding. We are not deciding,” he said. “But you can’t have a foot inboth places.”Asked if someone from the ICL had approached the BCCI with a view toa reconciliation Srinivasan said he was not aware of any such approach. He also stated that it was unlikely there would be a way back for aplayer once he decided to leave the BCCI and associate with anunauthorised body like the ICL. “I don’t think so. Once a player has madehis choice, he is there.”Was the fact that as many as eight players had left from Hyderabad and seven from Bengal a reflection on how those state units ran their cricket? “It is not at all a reflectionof state associations. Everybody is aware of who are the players who havegone,” said Srinivasan. “The players have gone and they have themselvesstated that they have been offered large sums of money. The bench strengthis strong. In fact we see this is as an opportunity for younger players.”Srinivasan cited the example of Tamil Nadu, where he is hands on as far asadministration of cricket is concerned. “In every state you have hundredsof players. Every time we run a selection for Under-13s or Under-15s wehave hundreds of talented kids coming in. If some go elsewhere it won’tmake such a big difference. We don’t want to make too much of this.”Interestingly the resolution to take action against players who joined theICL was passed unanimously, and there was a one hundred per cent attendance ofmembers. This means that the Railways Sports Promotion Board, afteroffering its grounds for use to the ICL, voted in favour of denyingplayers the right to derive any benefit from the BCCI if they associatedwith the ICL. How Rakesh Yadav, the Railways representative at the specialgeneral meeting, will reconcile with Lalu Prasad Yadav, the federal railway minister who made the earlier promise regarding the grounds, remains to be seen.It is only a coincidence that the finance committee met on Sunday andfinalised the accounts for the financial year ending March 2007. Thismeant that the board was also able to make public the exact value of the26% of gross receipts that goes towards the payment of players’ wages. Anincrease in the board’s surplus, to Rs 232 crore, from Rs 33 crore in theprevious financial year, automatically meant that the players’ fees becamemuch more.Players will now receive between 25 and 26 thousand rupees per playing day(for senior domestic tournaments) for the year 2006-07, and that, based onprojections is likely to go up to 36,000 per day for the 2008 season. Theboard’s practice was to pay out 4000 rupees per day for each match duringthe course of the season and the difference at the end of the year whenthe accounts were finalised. That cash allowance has been increased to Rs10000.What’s more, the board announced a revision of the total prize money forvarious tournaments it conducted, increasing the existing Rs 60 lakh to4.2 crore. This means that the team winning the Ranji Trophy now nets Rs50 lakh (previously 7 lakh) and the team winning the Duleep Trophy gets Rs30 lakh (previously 5 lakh). The board announced that this was with effectfrom the 2005-06 season, which meant that they would be retrospectivelypaying the champions from the last two years.Srinivasan also explained that the board and its affiliate units had spentRs 190 crore over the last financial year on creation of infrastructuralfacilities. A majority of this went towards 11 associations who had eithercompleted building of stadia or were in the process of doing so.Srinivasan said that the board had seven more proposals for constructionof stadia in the pipeline.The other major change from the round of meetings, also expected, was thatnational selectors would be paid, rather than hold honourary posts, from 2008 onwards. However, the members felt there was no need to makea constitutional change stipulating that the minimum eligibility to becomea national selector is to have played five Tests or 50 first-class matches. Instead they left it to the working committee to decide on criteria fromtime to time.*************** Overall income for the year 2006-07 is Rs 652 Crores as against Rs 430Crores in 05-06 and Rs 210 Crores in 04-05. The projected income for theyear 2007-08 is Rs 862 Crores (US$210,192,635.94).* 850 players and umpires fall under the Platinum Jubilee BenevolentScheme. The total outflow per year for the scheme is around Rs 15 Crores ($3,657,644.48) annually. This includes the benefits to widows of Test Cricketers.* All senior domestic tournaments will be video recorded in order to tagdecisions made by umpires which will later be analysed. This will cost Rs3 crore ($731,528.90). The board has entered into the agreement for a period of 3 years with Cricket Australia for training and development programme for theumpires.* The Board is in the process of negotiating and collecting all archivalmaterials to set up a state of the art museum at the headquarters at acost of around Rs 10 Crores ($2,438,429.65).* The amount set aside for expenditure on women’s cricket is around 6-7Crores ($1,463,057.79 to $1,706,900.756).* The BCCI will set up a National Cricket Academy at Bangalore on its ownpremises. The NCA is currently housed by the Karnataka State CricketAssociation at the Chinnaswamy Stadium* The Board is also planning to create an indoor academy of internationalstandards at Delhi and a zonal coaching academy at Kolkata to serve theEast and North Eastern States.