Indian summers will never be the same again; at least not for cricket followers.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has announced a summer bonanza, called the 'Corporate Cup', from next year.
According to the proposal, between four to six teams will play a series of day-night one-day games, with each team being allowed to field four overseas players.
BCCI honorary treasurer Kishore Rungta told rediff.com that corporate houses will be invited to participate in the tournament by paying a nominal entry fee.
"May, June and July are lean periods for cricket. Barring England, no other country has a heavy schedule. We could have close to 24 foreign players engaged in one-day cricket in India," he said, adding that the prize-money could be close to Rs five million for the winner.
The number of teams will dictate the format and period of the tournament. If six teams participate, then the tournament could take up to a month for completion. The one-day games will be normal 50 overs-a-side affairs.
Rungta agreed that one of the main reasons for staging such a tournament is that most stadia in the country, which have lights installed, are still paying huge amounts as interest to banks.
"Having cricket at night will help these stadiums repay their loans at the earliest.
"We will ensure that players like Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar will participate because there will not be much cricket at that time. It will give them elbow space and offer better player participation for the tournament.
"The exciting part of the tournament is that corporate houses will be able to chose their own players. So we could have Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar and possibly Ricky Ponting playing for one team," he said.
Player contracts
Rungta felt the tournament will be another step towards improving the financial condition of our domestic players.
Stating that player contracts would be implemented this year, he said: "The contracts could have been implemented last year, but because the boys [members of the Indian team] were not available for talks we have postponed it to this year."
He also emphasised that the insurance scheme implemented by the Board is co-related to the players' benevolent fund.
He explained that the principal amount for each player would be kept as security with Life Insurance Corporation, the interest of which will serve as the premium.
"The idea is to manage the money professionally. Till now it has been competently handled by the BCCI but LIC has offered to handle it for us."
Rungta also denied media reports that a Ranji Trophy player's fees will be hiked from Rs 10,000 to Rs 35,000 per match.
"We are yet to work out the details of the policy. We have to strike a balance. We make an average of Rs 100 crores per year. 26 per cent of that will go to the players. The break-up is 13 per cent for international cricketers, 10.6 per cent for the Ranji players and 2.4 per cent for junior cricketers.
"Even the Australian Board pays its cricketers only 22.5 per cent. We will actually be paying the Indian cricketers more than the Australian or the English players.
"Indian cricket is going to get better. Cricket will go back to being a serious career option."
