Fan Loyalty Abused

Fan Loyalty Abused - Simplest choice of words to define the performance of Indian Team.

Since we discussed enough way forward, I wish to proceed further. Rather I wish to add the following to the way forward. From my perspective, time has arrived to tie the player’s performance directly and immediately to their annual earnings. I know, we have not even completed a quarter from the time the Annual Contract was issued in Oct 2012, but it is not a bad idea to start from here.

Following is the current contract list awarded to Cricketers in Oct 2012

Grade A: Rs 1 crore each (approx $186,000) Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin

Grade B: Rs 50 lakh each (approx $93,000) Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav

Grade C: Rs 25 lakh each (around $46,500) Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, R Vinay Kumar, Munaf Patel, Abhimanyu Mithun, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha, Parthiv Patel, Manoj Tiwary, S Badrinath, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron, Abhinav Mukund, Ashok Dinda, Yusuf Pathan, Praveen Kumar, L Balaji

Going forward, I place the following guidelines.

The Contract

Cricketers will be awarded Annual contracts. Players will be classified into Grade A, Grade B or Grade C. Though the contract is valid for the entire year, there will be quarterly performance appraisal. Based on the performance in each quarter (series), players will be promoted or demoted. Again, nobody will be terminated from contracts (unless exceptional situation like involvement in match fixing), until the completion of the year. Every year, serious introspection will be made before awarding new contract to players.

The Guideline

Since, we take pride in saying Test Cricket is the pinnacle, anybody who don’t play Test Cricket will not be issued Grade A contract. In other words, no matter how exceptional the player is in ODI or T20, he cannot win a Grade A contract. Basically the player does not have a choice but to become a Test prospect to earn Grade A contract.

The Verdict

Here are my revised contracts for players at the end of England series.

Grade A: Rs 1 crore each (approx $186,000) Cheteshwar Pujara

Grade B: Rs 50 lakh each (approx $93,000) Virat Kohli, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan, Ashwin

Grade C: Rs 25 lakh each (around $46,500) Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, R Vinay Kumar, Munaf Patel, Abhimanyu Mithun, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Wriddhiman Saha, Parthiv Patel, Manoj Tiwary, S Badrinath, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron, Abhinav Mukund, Ashok Dinda, Yusuf Pathan, Praveen Kumar, L Balaji

The Justification 

I’ve not removed anybody from the existing contract (though I want to badly). I’ve accounted their performance in the England series for any promotion/demotion.

Sachin Tendulkar is demoted to Grade C. Reasons - He does not play T20 (for India), picks and choose ODI series and ultimately did not deliver in Test Cricket too. His performance in the series against England is too good for retention in Grade A, while demoting to Grade B is too subtle to even pinch. I guess Sachin Tendulkar’s case is self-explanatory for promoting/demoting remaining cricketers. Dhoni is demoted to Grade C for not delivering as skipper while Yadav lost his Grade B contract for not taking care of his body.

Will this Work?

You may ask: Will this have any bearing? After all, these players rake in millions in IPL, endorsements etc.

In my opinion, it surely will. IPL is a cut throat world. Their bosses mean business. In the first season of IPL, the Royal Challengers Bangalore failed pathetically. As a result, the entire side was overhauled in the second season. And Rahul Dravid lost his captaincy too. Similarly, Knight Riders removed Sourav Ganguly from captaincy in the second season. By the end of 3^rd season, Ganguly more or less became a refugee. You can find 100’s of examples like this in the business world of cricket. The players themselves know that the income in IPL is not a guarantee for many years/seasons.

However, it is only the Indian Cricket that plays it soft to the players. If players performances reflect on their annual income instantly, I’m sure every individual will fight hard to save their skin, if not for their country.

Dinesh

Cricket Lover

PS: The above re-dressing in contracts will ensure Tendulkar will retire/not, Dhoni should captain/not and the Openers should survive/not. Also, every year, Grade A contract should revise its Rate (to match the highest paid amount in IPL).