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Performance Oriented Payments for Cricketers

The shocking exit of India from the Cricket World Cup 2007 has raised a debate in India about

a) Reasons for the debacle

b) Need for Performance oriented payments to the Cricketers

Presently the cricketers are under a "Contract" system with the contracted players being divided into three categories and paid a fixed annual amount in addition to bonus if any. The Cricketers are however free to enter into endorsement contracts and make substantial money there on. Additionally players like Tendulkar, Ganguly etc have also been into business of various kinds under their brand names. The value of endorsement money being large, the payments made under the contract may not have any significance to  players like Sachin. But there is a reluctance on the part of the Cricketers to retire from active play since this may affect their contracts. Players like Ganguly have also exhibited their reluctance to quit captaincy which could be linked to their possible losing of endorsement contracts.

The players are therefore interested in clinging onto "Team India" so that their endorsements continue. A time has come therefore to start thinking if there is the right kind of motivation for the players to perform for India. All motivational theorists know that money is a motivating factor upto a particular point and thereafter it is the security, recognition, self esteem and ultimately the self actualization needs that motivate a person.

In the Indian team, most players including youngsters like Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh must have reached a stage that the endorsements provide them the monetary satisfaction. People like Tendulkar and Dravid should be in the self actualization stage. It is therefore intriguing to develop an appropriate motivational theory for the Indian team.

Players like Dravid and Inzamam have also indicated that the extreme media pressure makes them perform below their ability. Playrs like Sehwag are also an enigma since they need to play "care free" if they have to deliver as against some persons who deliver better under stress.

During the world cup preparations, Indian team was addressed by HR experts from TCS  and if the result is any indication, the exercise has not brought any positive change to the attitude or performance of the players.

We therefore need to look at fresh theories of motivating the players into better performance which can be put to test in the coming months.

I am placing some thoughts in this article in this direction with the caution that it may be necessary to adopt different motivational strategies with different players to have the best combined effect and therefore the collective strategy must be a combination of many sub strategies.

In this article let us first talk about the "Remuneration".

It appears that the "Contract System" which was meant to provide "Security" has not helped. Hence the system has to be either scrapped or substantially changed.

A suggestion that can work is to continue the contract system with a variable payment based on participation and performance. For example, the total remuneration should be divided into three parts. The first part is the basic payment in order to ensure that the cricketers who reach the national level continue to devote their time and attention on the game. If we take the current payments as the bench mark, 25% of the current contract package alone can be considered reasonable for this purpose. This payment will take care of the security needs and the basic financial needs.

The next 50 % of the remuneration should be payable based on the individual performance of the member on some agreed formulae. The NCR (Naavi Cricket Rating) could be one such bench mark. The amount available under this head  should be pooled and divided into sub pools for different matches so that there will be a performance remuneration for each match. This will be distributed to the individual players in the ratio of their NCR earnings for the match.

As an example, let us take the NCR earnings of Indians in the recent World Cup match against Bangladesh.

Name	Batting	Bowling/ Fielding	Total	Percentage NCR Earnigs	Remuneration payable Assuming the kitty value at Rs 100,000
Ganguly	37		37	18.5	18500
Sehwag	0	28	28	14.0	14000
Uthappa	5		5	2.5	2500
Tendulkar	-1	2	1	0.5	500
Dravid	8		8	4.0	4000
Yuvraj Singh	41	-7	34	17.0	17000
Dhoni	-3	30	27	13.5	13500
Harbhajan	-3	5	2	1.0	1000
Agarkar	-1	-5	-6	-3.0	-3000
Zaheer Khan	13	8	21	10.5	10500
MM Patel	15	29	44	21.5	21500
Total Team			201	100	100000

The balance 25% should be payable as "Winning Bonus" and should be available to all the 15 players of the team.

In this system, the negative performance criteria in the NCR will ensure that non performing players will lose not only the 25% performance share but they also have to contribute from their other earnings. The NCR system also provides weightages to the strengths of the opposing teams and hence performance against weaker opposition  will be suitably discounted. In the limited over games there is still an element of lack of opportunity for the lower order batsmen but this perhaps cannot be completely eliminated. But if a batman at the higher end plays selfishly, he is likely to get negative points despite some score against his name while a lower order batsmen who can score a quick fire 30 may still protect his earnings.

Assuming that a total remuneration of around Rs 25 lakhs per annum should be reasonable for a national player, who can be expected to play for at least 8 to 10 years, the total remuneration earned (Exclusive of travel, stay and expenses) of around Rs 2 to 2.5 cores should be more than sufficient life time earnings for the players. Out of this, 25 % or around 6 lakhs or Rs 50000/- per month should be the contract amount which is paid like a salary every month during the contract. The earning of nearly 12 lakhs will depend on the performance.

The winning bonus of 25 % can be allocated based on the targetted number of wins. For example, the BCCI may fix on a dicussion with the players that the expected win percentage is 70%. Based on the expected number of matches the 25 % remuneration will be apportioned only on 70 % of the proposed matches to arrive at the per match win bonus.

The above system provides a reasonably good motivation to the players of all levels.

Naavi

April 1, 2007