India captain Virat Kohli, senior player MS Dhoni and coach Ravi Shastri met the committee of administrators (CoA) and other BCCI officials in Delhi to work out their schedules and compensation packages in the coming years.
The players’ contracts have been up for renewal since September, and it has been widely reported that they are not entirely satisfied with their share of BCCI revenue. A week before the meeting, Kohli had also publicly expressed his displeasure over India’s schedule, which, he said, gave them little time to acclimatise with the conditions on the big overseas tours.
Vinod Rai, the chairman of the CoA, said the meeting was extensive and fruitful without divulging the nature of the discussion. No decisions have been made yet. “We had extensive discussions with the players on the issues which pertain to them directly, the number of matches they have to play, the FTP (the ICC Future Tours Programme), the compensation etc.” Rai said. “All the discussions were very fruitful. They were very receptive. As a consequence of which, they said, ‘For the first time someone is having a dialogue with us.’ Otherwise earlier it used to be decisions taken and communicated to them. All the inputs that they had to give us have been taken. We are going to factor them in.”
Rai said he was in no position to tell how many days of cricket India were going to play in the coming years or what pay structure had been agreed upon. He insisted that the players were happy with the new FTP, which is going to be discussed at an ICC workshop on December 7 and 8. “FTP, we bounced it off them,” Rai said. “Presentations have been made, they are in agreement with the FTP so that they get enough rest etc. Number of (playing) days I can’t tell you exactly because we haven’t yet worked it out.”
Rai said an in-principle agreement had been made on the pay structure. “In terms of principles on which the compensation package has to be structured, that we have agreed to,” he said. “It is only a question of numbers. We will now match the revenue with the compensation that each player will receive.”
Any change in the compensation structure might have to be cleared by the general body of the BCCI, which is meeting on December 9.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo