The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that it would be implementing a much-awaited rotation policy starting with the tour of the West Indies in April.

Intended to be accompanied by the launch of the contract system, the rotation policy is to run until the 2003 World Cup in February-March and would be extended further if it proves to be useful and effective.

"Since the next round of engagements with England and Zimbabwe will be played at home, we are looking at an April launch," BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya said at Kolkata on Tuesday.

Dalmiya further announced that discussions with the players would begin after the one-day series against England and before the home series against Zimbabwe. These talks would focus mainly on the contact/graded payment issue, and the five senior players - Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath - are to be the primary player representatives.

Kumble had earlier been nominated by the players to interact with the BCCI on the graded payment issue. The leg-spinner has already made a presentation to the Board on the policy.

© CricInfo