The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Performance and motivation, the key words

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Sunday, Dec 24, 2006
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Performance and motivation, the key words

Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: An attempt to strike a balance between performance and motivation when drawing up the players' contract for new season formed a prominent point in the working committee meeting of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Gradation would continue to figure in players' contract, said BCCI treasurer N. Srinivasan, one of the three administrators on the newly-constituted three-member committee to deliberate and decide on the issue.

Players' contract

Speaking to the media after the board meeting, he said that contracts would be in place before the Indian cricket team leaves for the West Indies to take part in the 2007 World Cup. "At the moment, we are trying to bring about a balance between motivation and performance," he said.

I. S. Bindra and D. P. Pandove are the other two members on the contract committee. BCCI administrative head Prof. Ratnakar Shetty and secretary Niranjan Shah will assist them.

Women's cricket

Women's cricket in India will get a boost due to BCCI's decision to give cash award of Rs. 1 lakh to each member of the Indian women's cricket team which defeated Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup final recently.

The Board's policy decision to help other Indian sports is moving forward, with the formation of a committee comprising Brijesh Patel, M. P. Pandove and S. S. Ahluwalia to assess requests from sportspersons for financial aid and finalise criteria for disbursing funds, out of the corpus of Rs. 50 crore set aside for the purpose.

The BCCI treasurer said that the issue of selection of a bowling coach on the Indian team's support staff did not come up as it was not on the meeting agenda. Chairman of selectors, Dilip Vengsarkar, had expressed views on the need for a bowling coach for the senior squad.

Pace bowler Irfan Pathan was in the process of seeking expert guidance from Pakistan pace ace Wasim Akram, now in South Africa as an expert commentator.

S. Sreesanth is also reported to have benefited from Allan Donald's tips prior to the Test series.

Dalmiya's expulsion

The BCCI decision to expel ex-Board president Jagmohan Dalmiya has been accepted by Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), one of the Board affiliate units. Speaking on the matter, Srinivasan said that CAB secretary said the parent body that a special meeting had been called on December 27 in Kolkata to decide on the new president in the wake of Dalmiya's expulsion.

Mumbai University will get Rs. 36 lakh from the Board to organise a South Asia inter-university tournament in February 2007 as part of 150th anniversary celebrations.

In another development, the Indian cricket body has rejected a proposal to include cricket in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, to be hosted in New Delhi by the Indian Olympic Association.

Tour itinerary

The BCCI's working committee took the decision considering the ICC tours itinerary. The Board treasurer, addressing the media afterwards, reasoned that since "the Indian team will be burdened by the itinerary which the ICC draws up for all the teams, it would not be wise for us to give consent to the proposal for including cricket in the Commonwealth Games as a medal sport." Cricket featured in the Commonwealth Games only once in Malaysia in 1998.

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