Hike on the cards, Kohli and Co. want rest between tours
CHENNAI: In a meeting with the Committee of Administrators (CoA) in New Delhi on Thursday, the Indian team management requested that the Future Tours Programme (FTP) be designed in a way that there is enough rest before each series.
The team also wants the next edition of the Indian Premier League to finish early, so that they can go to England early to prepare for a long series involving a five-Test series.
Captain Virat Kohli along with his predecessor MS Dhoni and head coach Ravi Shastri met CoA members Vinod Rai and Diana Edujli. Also present was BCCI CEO Rahul Johri. The issue of pay hike came up for discussion, which has been going on since their contracts expired in September.
Rai, who spoke to reporters after the meeting, indicated that the demand for raise has been accepted and Test players are likely to be handed a hike of 100 per cent or even more. “The principles on which compensation package has to be structured, that has been agreed to. It’s only a question of numbers now. We will match the revenue with compensation that each player receives,” Rai said.
When Anil Kumble was the coach of the team, he had proposed that Grade A players get Rs 5 crore annually as against Rs 2 crore they were getting.
A major topic of discussion was scheduling of matches. It is understood that the players pointed out the recommendations made by the Lodha panel, which suggests a 15-day gap between series.
Though the BCCI has maintained it would consider this while finalising the FTP, some of the series arranged recently didn’t follow this procedure. The team has only two days after the last T20 against Sri Lanka before leaving for South Africa for a full tour starting towards the end of December.
“The players have seen the FTP and they have no objections to it. They only want the schedule to be more accommodative because the amount of cricket we play is substantially higher than some of the other teams. Their issues only bordered around those series which are accommodated when there is an opening in the window. For example, Indian teams of the past have had a break between June-August, but that doesn’t exist now,” sources in the know said.
The Indians head to Sri Lanka after the South Africa tour for a T20 tri-series involving the hosts and Bangladesh as part of the island nations’ Independence Day celebrations. Post this, the IPL gets underway. The tour of England begins in July and the team ideally wants a short break before leaving for the Old Blighty. During the meeting, it was also said that there should be enough practice matches.
“We had an extensive discussion with the players on issues that pertain to them directly, which means the number of matches they have to play, the FTP and compensation package, etc,” Rai stated.
venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com