Indian selectors may ask for salaries

Indian selectors may seek monthly salaries for themselves when they come face to face at an unprecedented meeting with the new cricket board president Jagmohan Dalmiya in New Delhi on Thursday.

Dalmiya is to meet members of the senior and junior selection committees to discuss ways to improve the national teams' performance, with an eye on the January under-19 World Cup in New Zealand and the senior World Cup in South Africa in early 2003.

The Indian selectors have taken a cue from the Pakistan Cricket Board, which last week made history by giving its selectors their first pay cheques.

"Why not? It's good for the game. The selectors should also get salaries," a national selector said. "But the salary should be good."

He said he would suggest at the meeting that the BCCI should follow the footsteps of the PCB. "But I will have to talk to my colleagues and see what they think of the idea."

There is no agenda for the meeting, leave alone any BCCI initiative of giving salaries to the selectors.

The PCB, in a path-breaking decision, included senior and junior selectors on its payroll. According to reports, the senior selectors -- Aqib Javed, Mohsin Khan, Shafiq Ahmad -- are drawing Rs. 30,000 a month while their junior counterparts -- Rashid Khan, Shafqat Rana and Farrukh Zaman --- are getting Rs. 25,000.

The salary does not include travelling and other allowances the selectors are entitled to whenever they go on tours.

The PCB announcement comes at a time when it is reeling under a financial crunch following the cancellation of tours by India and New Zealand due to security reasons. Despite a loss of $30 million, the board kept its promise of giving the selectors monthly salaries.

All BCCI officials barring its executive secretary and his staff at the Mumbai headquarters are honorary officials, and there is no provision in the board's constitution to pay monthly salaries.

Indian selectors get allowances when they have travel for select players.

Even an enterprising administrator like Dalmiya may find it difficult to do much on this issue, which has been debated for some years.

Since paying salaries will need a change in BCCI constitution, the idea will first have to be discussed by the powerful working committee. If the proposal do gets through, it will still need the seal of the general body of BCCI.

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--Indo-Asian News Service

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