Players will be taken
care of: Muthiah

Faisal Shariff

"The contract system is a good thing and will eventually benefit the players and their performances in the long run," Board of Control for Cricket in India president A C Muthiah told rediff.com on Saturday.

Muthiah was speaking soon after his press conference to announce the Indian team sponsorship deal with Sahara India.

He said the board is aware of the problems faced by players, and hastened to add that till the contract system falls in place, the players would be taken care of.

Citing the case of ace spinner Anil Kumble, Muthiah said if any promising youngster is hurt and needs medical attention that is not available in the country then the board would send him abroad for treatment.

"We have already started the process with Anil Kumble. We have paid for his medical bills and his travel to South Africa. We will compensate the players.

"After the graded payment system comes through we will look towards other avenues to take care of the players' interest," he added.

But it appears there is a different thinking among some board members on the subject. An official argued: "The contract system has more cons than pros. Australia has been unable to get fresh blood because the older players are on contract and they have to pick the side from them. Besides that, the players want match fees, logo money as well as contract fees. That, to my mind, is unfair."

Speaking about the Asian Test championship, Muthiah said, "We have decided to cancel the three-match one-day series against Australia because it wasn't decided officially. The Asian Test championship is more important for us. We agreed to go ahead with the tournament because in the letter given to us by the government it was outlined that we were not to participate in a bilateral series with Pakistan and also not participate at non-regular venues. The letter in no way restricted us from playing in tournaments involving more than two countries. In fact, the letter stated that India could go to Pakistan and they could come to India to participate in those tournaments.

"The Asian Test championship involves four nations and, hence, there should be no problem with that."

He also informed that Sir Paul Condon is still in the process of finalising his report on match-fixing.

"The ICC," he said, "has borrowed a lot of information from the CBI report for the Paul Condon report. It is a detailed report but Paul Condon has left it open. He hasn't completed it the least to say."