After 75 years, the Indian cricket board has finally decided to dump the system of having national selectors working on an “honorary” basis - starting this year-end. From October 1, the present team of five selectors, led by former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar, will get Rs 50,000 per Test and Rs 25,000 per one-day international they attend.

However, this is a temporary arrangement, till Vengsarkar’s team completes its tenure by September 2008 - one of the five selectors, Sanjay Jagdale, finishes his term this year. After that the BCCI hopes to have in place an annual retainership package for selectors who would no longer be elected, but appointed by an experts’ panel.

Currently, the selectors get a blanket “fee” of Rs 5,000 per day - for every match, if it’s a one-day game - and an overall compensation of Rs 7,000 towards “incidental expenses” for every assignment, Test or one-day. For domestic matches, the “TA/DA” system will continue, for now.

Confirming the move to start paying selectors from October, BCCI administrative secretary Prof Ratnakar Shetty told The Indian Express: “The details of the retainership package will be clear only after the annual meeting in September. But yes, the current selectors will get paid per match from October 1 till the next panel takes over.”

Not surprisingly, the annual retainership concept for the future has been welcomed by all the current selectors, but the temporary arrangement, based on a “rotation system”, has not gone down well.

“This is ridiculous. So are you encouraging a system where all selectors are forced to land up for all matches so that they get paid? What about tours abroad?” asked a livid selector, who did not wish to be named.

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