In defense of the contract system

On April 17, 2001, I had interviewed Sachin Tendulkar at length, at the MIG Cricket Club premises in Mumbai.

The in-depth, lengthy interview will be carried in its entirety, in due course.

Meanwhile, on April 25, we had carried a story on the players' demand for a contract system.

In this story, I had quoted extensively from various players -- Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble to name just three -- who at various times in the past had spoken to me on this issue.

Subsequent reports in sections of the media suggested that the Rediff story was concocted. That Sachin Tendulkar categorically denied having spoken of the contract system to anyone, either in public or in private. And "contemptuously dismissed" the website that carried the story. Further, that India vice captain Rahul Dravid had also denied speaking on the issue.

This morning, I spoke to Sachin Tendulkar over phone. He clarified that on the occasion referred to by the media reports mentioned above, he was surrounded by several people asking questions all at once.

One such question, he told me, was whether he had given any interviews on the contract system. "The interview I gave rediff.com was a lengthy, exhaustive one, so in the rush of the moment I didn't think of that when this question was asked. So I said no."

The bottomline, Sachin Tendulkar said, was that he was not denying the interview given to us.

For his part, Rahul Dravid -- again speaking to me on phone -- told me that at no point had he been asked by any other media organisation about the contract system, and therefore the question of denying the comments made to us, and carried verbatim in our story referred to above, did not arise.

This clarification is being issued by us today, in response to a stream of email queries from our readers. Who have written to ask, pointing out that media reports had rubbished the story we had carried, and that we owed it to them to clarify the situation and defend our reputation for veracity.