BCCI’s Promised Compensation To First-Class Players Still Pending After One Year

BCCI had promised compensation to all the first-class players in India after the domestic season had to be canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal, the amount is yet to be disbursed as state units have still not sent in the requisite details.

This news comes on the heels of the Telegraph’s report that the Indian women’s team had not been paid their part of the prize money for reaching the final of the T20 World Cup 2020 in Australia. BCCI received a lot of flak for this and the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) even asked the Indian women cricketers to form a union to avoid such hassles in the future.

We Have To Discuss With States Because They Have To Tell Us Who Would Have Played, How Many Matches Etc: BCCI Treasurer Arun Dhumal

The developments also brought into focus the unwarranted delay in players’ payments across the board, regardless of gender. BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal accepted that devising an acceptable formula for one and all isn’t as easy and linear.

“We have to discuss with states because they have to tell us who would have played, how many matches, who would have been in reserves. None of the states have sent any proposal for the compensation package,” Dhumal said to PTI.

There are around 700 domestic cricketers without an IPL contract and make anything between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh in a full domestic season with maximum earnings coming from Ranji Trophy where they get a match fee of Rs 1.40 lakh.

“The treasurer is right. The BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has announced the compensation but how do you determine which are the players who would play 8 games, or 10 games in a season? The reserve players get half, so how do you compute that? You can’t just give a flat amount to every player. Giving a lump sum to states is an option but how do you monitor the states?” asked a former BCCI official and state unit veteran.

The domestic cricketers are also yet to get their Gross Revenue Share (GRS) for the past few seasons, which BCCI allocates from its TV broadcast revenue and is usually cleared by September.

“We pay the GRS amounts after the accounts are settled. But I must tell you that since 2016-17, when the Committee of Administrators (CoA) was in operation, GRS has not been cleared,” Dhumal said.

However, Dhumal said that the payments for this year’s Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy payments (Rs 35,000 per match) have been cleared.

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