Matches (21)
IPL (2)
Pakistan vs New Zealand (1)
PAK v WI [W] (1)
WI 4-Day (4)
County DIV1 (5)
County DIV2 (4)
ACC Premier Cup (2)
Women's QUAD (2)
News

Pension hike and a plan to boost other sports

Hike in Monthly pensions, plan to boost other sports, and venues for Champions Trophy were finalised in the BCCI's working committee meeting

Cricinfo staff
10-Apr-2006
A hike in monthly pensions for former players, plans to boost support to other sports, and venues for the 2006 Champions Trophy were some of the issues discussed in the BCCI's working committee meeting in Mumbai on Sunday.
Showing the money
Players who have figured in 25 Tests or more will receive up to Rs35,000 as pension amount while those who have played in less than 25 will get Rs25,000. The widows of Test cricketers will also receive the same amount. Former cricketers who played for India in Tests and ODIs after December 31, 1993 and all international umpires will receive a sum of Rs10,000 per month.
Sharing the booty
Sports other than cricket will also benefit from the BCCI's largesse, after they decided to set up a corpus fund worth Rs50 crore (approx US$11 million) to boost budding talents in the under-15 age group in various sports. "It's the responsibility of the BCCI to support young talent in sports that figure in the Asian Games and Olympics," Sharad Pawar, the president of the BCCI, said about this initiative. "The BCCI will pick the No.1 in the under-15 age group and help them in training in India and abroad. The modalities have to be worked out and the BCCI constitution has to be amended for this purpose. We will set aside Rs50 crores and add the proceeds of one off-shore match every year [around Rs40 crores] to build the corpus.''
Ground work
The board, after negotiations with the ICC, confirmed four venues -- Cricket Club of India, Mumbai, Jaipur, Mohali and Ahmedabad -- for the Champions Trophy to be held in October-November this year. "The ICC has agreed to reduce the compensation money from US$1 million to under 200,000 dollars for the fourth venue," informed Pawar. "The ICC rejected Chennai and Bangalore because of the threat of rain and the Cricket Association of Bengal informed the BCCI that it was not in a position to conduct the Champions Trophy games.''
Pawar will choose eight venues in India for the 2011 World Cup and the "eight centres will have to send the compliance letter soon," reported BCCI treasurer N Srinivasan. Also, a special committee headed by Chirayu Amin, the vice president, and comprising Arun Jaitley of the Delhi District Cricket Association, Lalit Modi, Bindra and Ajay Shirke, Maharashtra Cricket Association president, had been formed to come up with proposals to develop the 30 acres of land given by the Delhi Development Authority to the board.
To cap it all
Agreeing with Sunil Gavaskar's views on the India cap, Pawar announced that only the national players will wear the cap with the BCCI's crest on it, while the support staff will not be allowed to wear it.
Searching for talent
A special committee headed by former chief IS Bindra will give suggestions about optimum usage of the board's funds, and will also offer recommendations on the Talent Research Development Wing (TRDW). "The committee will submit a preliminary report on all the related issues, including the scraping of the TRDW and the change in the format of the national selection panel [from five members to three]," said Pawar. Gavaskar had earlier criticised the proposed move to scrap the TRDW, asserting that the increase in the number of players from smaller towns was due to this system. He felt it would be a "big mistake" to scrap such a successful system.