Even as BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said the Board was open to consider any “fair representation” by players on contracts and endorsements, another top BCCI official said there would be no rethink on the two issues. Vice-president Shashank Manohar said the BCCI would neither bow to pressures from the players’ agents nor succumb to legal threats. “I do not think there is any scope for rethinking on endorsement policy already announced,” Manohar said. “The rules and conditions are set. A player may or may not accept, but it is not a problem of the BCCI.” Asked if the scrapped graded payment system would be brought back at a later stage, Manohar categorically said, “it will not be.” But another vice-president, Rajiv Shukla, said in New Delhi that BCCI president Sharad Pawar was open to suggestions on the decision to limit endorsements to three for each player and would consult cricketers for which he has been authorised by the working committee.Highly-placed Board sources said that the number of endorsements may be increased to five, a suggestion made by former skipper Kapil Dev who spoke to Pawar. “It is not as if everything has been finalised. The decision allowing endorsement of only three products is not sacrosant,” Shukla said.The Working Committee yesterday decided that a cricketer could endorse only three products and they would be paid match fees plus bonus for a series win instead of the recently introduced graded payments. Earlier in the day, captain Rahul Dravid proposed a “healthy dialogue” between the players and the BCCI to “crease out the irksome issues.” Reacting to Dravid’s proposal, Shah said, “any fair representation by the players can always be considered.” But Manohar rebuffed suggestions that the Board’s decisions infringed on the players’ right to earn and so could be questioned in the court of law. “Nothing will happen in the court because the players are not models,” he said.“If they want to play for the Board and India, the Board is putting conditions. If a player is not willing to sign the contract and uphold the conditions, it amounts to saying that he is not willing to play for India.”He also defended the Board’s decision to ask the players to seek its permission before signing an endorsement contract. “We do not want to know the players’ figures (of earnings from their personal endorsements). This is mainly to investigate whether there is any clause that conflicts with the interests of the game or the Board or the ICC.“They are now getting 13 per cent of the total income of the Board. They might get even 25 per cent if they won. They could get eight per cent, if they do not win matches. They are given a basic security now. The Board is willing to pay the players more money. “The only issue is that the Board wants the players to perform and then take more money,” he said.Shastri chants Chappell’s ‘go-young’ mantra NEW DELHI: Even though he refused to call it end of all roads for the senior cricketers, Team India’s interim manager Ravi Shastri dropped enough hints that he would carry forward predecessor Greg Chappell’s ‘go-young’ policy in the forthcoming Bangladesh tour.“You need to look at youth. There is a shelf period for everything. I believe if the young guns have to be given a chance, that has to happen on the tour of Bangladesh. I think the tour would be the right opportunity to test young talents,” Shastri said.“There’s a heck of a lot of cricket that’s going to be played by India in the next 12 months. So if you want to give the youngsters an opportunity, then do it early, do it on this trip to Bangladesh and see what comes out of it,” the former captain told a television channel. —PTI
