Vin­ode Mam­chan

The T&T Crick­et Board (TTCB) will re­tain 15 play­ers in time for the re­gion­al First Class crick­et se­ries which gets un­der­way in No­vem­ber.

The West In­dies Crick­et Board (WICB) re­vealed re­cent­ly that the First Class tour­na­ment will now take the fran­chise route, with play­ers from across the re­gion, al­lowed free move­ment to play with any team they wish.

Play­ers will be paid a month­ly salary, in ad­di­tion to match fees for the tour­na­ment which takes place over ten rounds.

Chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer of the T&TCB, Su­ruj Ra­goonath told T&T Guardian yes­ter­day that the lo­cal board would re­tain a to­tal of 15 play­ers and they would be un­der this pro­gramme for a year.

"Ini­tial­ly the board will re­tain 15 play­ers for a pe­ri­od of one year and those cur­rent­ly re­tained by the WICB would not be re­tained by the lo­cal board," Ra­goonath said.

"We will re­tain a to­tal of 15 play­ers but not those that are al­ready re­tained by the board. They will, how­ev­er, be avail­able for play for T&T. As an ex­am­ple, we will not re­tain play­ers like Dwayne Bra­vo, Ke­iron Pol­lard, De­nesh Ramdin and Sunil Nar­ine but the oth­ers that are not re­tained by the re­gion­al board.

"These play­ers who are re­tained by the WICB will get match fees based on their re­tain­er con­di­tion with the WICB. The oth­ers will be paid a month­ly salary by the TTCB for one year in the first in­stance. They will al­so get match fees in ac­cor­dance with their re­tain­ers."

The WICB will be sub­si­dis­ing the league and hence play­ers will get a month­ly salary in the range of US$1,500 (TT$9,500) to US$2,500 (TT15,507). A play­er's salary will be matched to his se­nior­i­ty.

In ad­di­tion to this month­ly salary, each play­er that makes the fi­nal 11 for any match will be paid in the re­gion of US$1,500 (TT$$9,500).

Ra­goonath, the for­mer Test open­er said that the play­ers who are re­tained by the TTCB will have to ac­tu­al­ly "go to work" for the pe­ri­od of one year.

He said: "When I say 'go to work', I mean they will have to make a cer­tain amount of hours in train­ing and will be re­quired to do men­tor­ship, coach­ing and oth­er civic du­ties. They will be avail­able to pro­mote sport and a healthy lifestyle as well, for ex­am­ple they can join in the march for breast can­cer and Aids that is kept at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah."

Play­ers who have reg­u­lar jobs will then have to make a choice be­tween keep­ing their jobs, or tak­ing a re­tain­er.

"These guys would have the weigh their op­tions and if they de­cide against tak­ing a re­tain­er to keep their reg­u­lar jobs, they would be of­fered what is called a pay for play con­tract," Ra­goonath said.

"They will be re­quired to get time-off from their em­ploy­ers to train and play match­es and will get just match fees, when they rep­re­sent the coun­try.

"If the play­ers take up their re­tain­ers then they don't have to wor­ry about get­ting time off to train and play match­es, be­cause they willbe full time crick­eters."

This arrange­ment is al­ready in place in the ma­jor crick­et­ing na­tions such as Eng­land, South Africa and Aus­tralia.