Players contract likely to be finalised tomorrow: BCCI

Bangalore, June 11 (UNI) Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today expresed confidence of finalising the contract for players at the Working Committee meeting to be held in New Delhi tomorrow.

After a three hour meeting with senior players, including India captain Rahul Dravid, BCCI Treasurer N Srinivasan told newspersons, ''The meeting was fruitful. We are hopeful of finalising the contract at the working committee meeting tomorrow.'' Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble and Saurav Ganguly were also present for the meeting. The players, barring Ganguly were also present at the press conference.

The new contract offered to the Indian cricketers which had done away with the graded payment, drastically reduced the retainership allowance and put curbs on players' endorsements. These had not been accepted by the players while they had also raised several contentious matters.

''The details of today's meeting will be presented at the working committee meeting tomorrow. There is no question of players demanding something and it is a purely internal matter and it is between the players and the Board. I cannot reveal what transpired in the meeting,'' Mr Srinivasan said.

Dravid, commenting on the meeting, said, ''We had a fruitful meeting with the members of the BCCI. We are hopeful of signing the contract soon,'' he said.

UNI