da gbg bet： Resolving sponsorship issues and players’ concerns are a priority for International Cricket Council administrators
Santhosh S29-Sep-2002Resolving sponsorship issues and players’ concerns are a priority for International Cricket Council administrators.International Cricket Council (ICC) president Malcolm Gray and ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed spent almost an hour with the media at the Taj Samudra hotel in Colombo on Saturday. They made it very clear that ICC intends toresolve the outstanding issues with regards to the sponsorship andplayer terms at the earliest.”A paper that goes to the ICC board that says, these are the issues,and we don’t want it to drag out to right before the World Cup. Thereis a time frame to address the issue, and we intend to deal with it inOctober and the first half of November. We can sign off then and putthe issue behind us,” Speed said.Gray was quite categoric about the player terms issue, which hasthreatened to take the game apart.”It is quite important that the facts are clear. The player terms, as they are for this tournament, were first notified to the countries in December 2001.”He said that the player terms were formulated with the World Cup 2003in mind, and since the venue for the ICC Champions Trophy was notfinalised then, “The player terms for this tournament were given tothe countries in March/April of this year.”In fact a similar player terms contract was given to member countriesfor the Under-19s World Cup, which was played in New Zealand inJanuary. And they were exactly the same player terms given to thecountries in December,” Gray added.When asked about why the players were not notified about the playerterms, Gray was quick to make it clear, “It is the boards that havethe relationship with their players. It is up to the individualnational boards to consult with their players, and to handle themanagement of the players.”Addresing the same issue, Speed said that the sponsorship agreementsigned by the ICC with Global Cricket Corporation is a great deal forcricket. “There weren’t too many players up there who were saying now wedont want this cheque for significantly increased prize money.Tomorrow the players will be going out flat to win $US300,000 prizemoney. Again when they come for the World Cup, the prize money isincreasing,” Speed told the media.Speed said that as a result of this ICC Champions Trophy each fullmember board will take home $US800,000, and for the World Cup, theywill be taking a million dollars.If revenue-sharing were an issue for the players, Speed made it clearthat it is for the member boards to address that issue.”ICC doesn’t pay the players, ICC generates the money from these events and pays it back to the boards. The boards enter into the agreements with theplayers. We need to be clear about that,” said Speed.When quizzed about the general criticism that ICC often fails to showsome spine in addressing major issues and lets them drag on, Speedrefuted such criticisms and put forward a case to defend its image. Hesaid that ICC had an issue with the Indian board on the Saharasponsorship issue.And, he made it clear that the Indian board and GCC were given anopportunity to present their case to the ICC Board. After hearing thearguments, the ICC board voted 12-1 to reject the Sahara sponsorship.Amongst other such financial issues, Gray sympathised withthe Pakistan board for the loss of substantial revenue from having toplay their home games at neutral venues. He said that to address allsorts of financial issues, “A paper is going to the board, whereby aloan fund will be set up, and countries that are in need of fundingwill be able to borrow.”