ICC Caves In to Demands of India Players

By Anil - 9 Sep, '02
September 9 2002

The ICC has at long last given up the ghost on controversial clauses in its contract. Indian cricketers, the richest in the world due to the large market there, express relief at the settlement and agree to play in the Champions Trophy after an eleventh hour teleconference with the ICC and BCCI.

The word was that the ICC, by butting in on the endorsements showered on Indian cricketers by Indian companies, was attempting to act as a middleman with its controversial contract, thus siphoning off the bulk of the money for its own purposes and to distribute a portion of it amongst all other cricket countries. Having snagged a massive $550 million bid originating from mostly Indian companies, their contract appeared to be designed to prevent Indian players from being retained as sponsors by competitors of those companies, thus forcing all advertisers in large part to go through them rather than deal directly with the players.

Indian cricketers, justifiably outraged about this, refused to sign the contract. BCCI, the cricket board of India, put pressure on the players to sign it, but only because they were rewarded with a tiny percentage of that $550 million like all other cricket Boards - which, even though tiny, is still much more than they can make when the companies go direct to the players in an attempt to claim market share in the hugely lucrative Indian market where cricket is the most popular sport.

In the end, after hectic parleys between the players and the BCCI, the ICC and BCCI, the players and the ICC, and finally between all of the above, agreement has been reached. Top Indian players, who have now agreed to play in the Champions Trophy, will be gratified to win this particular round. It is a crucial blow for the the rights of sportsmen in India, and a comeuppance for the ICC who made surprisingly hypocritical statements about putting country before money, all the while silent on the fact that the controversy was precipitated by their own greed.

While audiences in India will welcome this, and the sponsors of both the ICC and Indian players greatly relieved, it is unfortunate for the second and third stringers temporarily slated for the team who had dreams and aspirations of a rare chance at representing their countries. One can only hope that as the players organization in India is put in place, they will ensure that all cricketers in India will be paid as well as the bounty from their country demands, and that they will get their chances in due course.