Mumbai, April 7: In a move that is bound to rattle the multi-crore cricket sponsorship industry, the BCCI has brought under the scanner a key clause in the endorsement contracts of some of its star players.

It has come to the BCCI’s notice that at least two senior players have a “minutes-related clause” in their endorsement contracts, which gives them extra money in the forms of a bonus for the amount of time they spent in the middle.

The Board fears that such a clause has the potential to strongly influence the way a player, especially a batsman, approaches his game, opting to spend more time in the middle, while tending to ignore the demands of the team. In other words, the longer a player stays on the TV screen, the more his market value.

And this, said a top official, was the main reason for the BCCI working committee decision today that “players shall take prior approval of the Board before signing any endorsement contract and will submit a copy of the agreement to the Board.”

Players have also been asked to “submit a copy of the existing contracts with sponsors to the Board” though the BCCI may not be able to enforce any changes.

“This clause has been brought to our notice and we are aware of the damage potential it contains,” a top BCCI source told this newspaper.

The BCCI is particularly worried about the possibilities such a clause opens up: besides affecting the individual performance of players, they fear it could even influence team decisions, such as opting to bat first against weaker opposition, when the batsmen are assured of a full quota of 50 overs.

In fact, the issue of endorsements affecting performance has been the key theme of the BCCI’s two-day review meeting here following the World Cup debacle. It was first raised by Kapil Dev during last afternoon’s meeting between BCCI officials and former India captains.

“We felt that for the players to remain focused, they should not be allowed to do any sponsor-related events 15 days before the tour and during the tour. We had also suggested a cap on the number of brands. We also came up with a number of other suggestions to ensure that this issue does not affect a player’s performance,” Kapil Dev told The Indian Express. The Board panel today also decided to limit the number of players who can sign for the same sponsor, as recommended by the former captains and ex-coach Greg Chappell. This move, as this paper reported yesterday, is aimed at curbing the influence a particular business house can possibly wield on team affairs, particularly while selecting the final XI.

The other important endorsement-related decision taken today was to limit the number of sponsors or products that any single player can endorse to just three.

“These are serious issues that need to be looked into while evaluating the performance of the players,” said the source, who was part of yesterday’s review meeting and today’s working committee deliberations. With the team flopping badly, the BCCI obviously has chosen the right moment to strike back at some of the senior players who had stood up to its arm-twisting tactics during the messy contracts negotiations last year.

But now, even the players realise that there’s nothing much they can do till maybe Indian cricket hits another high and they are back in demand. One of the two players this paper contacted to discuss this issue summed it up like this: “All I can tell you is that this is not over yet.”

The New Team

• Rahul Dravid retained as captain for tours of Bangladesh and England, besides a one-day series in Ireland.

• Ravi Shastri appointed ‘Cricket Manager’ for the tour of Bangladesh.

• Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh appointed bowling and fielding coach respectively.

• Player contract system scrapped. Players to be paid match fees with bonus for each series win.

The New Rules

• Players’ personal endorsements restricted to three products and not more than two players to endorse a sponsor other than those contracted to the Board. ·

• No player endorses a product two weeks before and after a series.

• No player to have exclusive contract with the electronic or print media. Only the captain shall write columns.

• All India players to play a stipulated number of domestic matches when not on national duty.

• Fitness test before every tour.