No 'free lunches' for Indian cricketers in Aus, will have to pay t

Melbourne, Dec 19 (UNI) It is going to be tough for the visiting Indian cricketers both on and off the field.

Simply put there are going to be no ''free lunches for the visitors'' as the team will have to pay taxes for playing in this country this summer.

Not used to such 'protocol' the BCCI has been caught in a fix after receiving a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) from Cricket Australia (CA) in this connection.

There has been a drastic change in the tax laws in the country under which entertainers and sports people working in the country are taxed for the income they earn.

The visitors are likely to be taxed nearly 1.5 million dollar (about Rs six crores) from their match fee.

According to a source, an Indian cricketer will get around 6,200 dollar and 4,000 dollar for a Test and a one-dayer respectively.

Cricket Australia spokesman Peter Young said CA can not interfere in the matter and the MoU for the tour was mandatory.

''The details of the MOU reflect Australia's tax laws and that's standard of the MOUs we do in Australia. When you are in Australia, the Australian tax law applies,'' he said.

However, Indian team media manager MK Shridhar said, ''This issue is being handled in Mumbai. We are in touch with our tax consultants whose advice we would follow.'' ''It's not that we want to avoid it but we just want to make sure as it is applicable to the cricketers for the first time,'' he said.

UNI