Indian team for Bangladesh tour not before April 15

Mumbai, Apr 9 (UNI) The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today stated that the team for next month's tour of Bangladesh would be picked only after April 15.

BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah said that he would discuss the issue with the selection panel Chairman Dilip Vengsarkar and decide where and when a preparatory camp should be held while finalising the date and venue of the selection committee meeting.

The BCCI Working Committee has already given a directive to the selectors to pick a young team, but the manner in which the latter would fulfill the all-powerful panel's wish is unclear.

There is a likelihood of the selectors initially picking around 25 probables for the short tour.

The thorny issue of the players' contracts and the BCCI diktat over their endorsement deals, however, stand as a potentially big hurdle ahead of the team's selection.

The Board has directed all the players to submit copies of their existing endorsement contracts besides putting a cap on the number of sponsorship deals they can sign at a time though this would not apply to the existing contracts.

The performance-based match fee structure with a flat retainer for an unspecified number of players yet to be contracted could be another area of conflict between them and the cricket establishment.

Skipper Rahul Dravid has expressed a wish through the media statement yesterday for having a dialogue with the board officials on the raging issue.

On the other hand, the BCCI is keen that the players sign the new contracts before departing for Bangladesh.

UNI