Sachin, Ganguly, VVS Laxman demand money from BCCI for selecting new Indian coach

MUMBAI: Former Indian greats Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman have made no secret of their desired remuneration for picking the Indian team coach, sparking debate in the country for their “exaggerated demand”.

The three former cricketers, who are part of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) that held its first meeting after the India-Sri Lanka game at the Oval on Thursday, informed BCCI CEO Rahul Johri that they don’t want their services to be honorary.

Johri is expected to pass on the message to the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), which will have to take the final call on the demand put forward by Indian cricket’s ‘Big Three’.

While the CoA’s decision is awaited, there are those in the BCCI who feel the CAC members shouldn’t be paid. “This happens to be a BCCI sub-committee, plus one of them happens to be a BCCI member. Since members of various other BCCI committees don’t get paid, CAC can’t be an exception. There was this demand earlier too, but BCCI turned it down,” said a BCCI office-bearer.

While Ganguly is the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), both he and Laxman are BCCI-contracted commentators.

The CAC first floated the request for remuneration in 2015, within months of the late BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya forming the high-profile committee as a way of giving a major say to the game’s greats in cricketing matters.

Indian media reported that one of the CAC members asked the BCCI office-bearer for a contract. “Even at that point, we had sent them a ‘scope of work’ document. They sent it back to us, but we expressed our helplessness. The ‘scope of work’ document had the terms of reference, but no monetary commitment,” said a BCCI official.

It was reportedly Dalmiya who turned down the request. “According to him, the BCCI does not traditionally pay its committee members. The members are provided accommodation, daily allowance and a car on days of meetings. This is what is extended to CAC,” said a former BCCI office bearer as quoted by the Indian Express.