MUMBAI: The timing is revealing. And protestations of anonymous cricket officials to Indian media notwithstanding, a day after UK’s The Telegraph reported that the BCCI is yet to disburse the $500,000 runner-up prize money owed to the Indian team from the ICC Women’s World T20 held in Australia in February-March last year, the richest cricket body in the world has assured that the pending dues will be cleared “very soon”.
The Telegraph’s Sunday edition, quoting an official from the Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA), had reported that the BCCI is yet to disburse the $500,000 runner-up prize money of the global event. On a side note, the BCCI is the ONLY cricketing body in the world that does not allow its cricketers (men or women) to become FICA members.
India were led by Harmanpreet Kaur at the marquee event, where they lost to Australia in the final.
“The members of the Indian women’s cricket team will be getting the share of their prize money by the end of this week. The transactions have been processed and I am expecting that they will receive their share very soon,” the senior board functionary told PTI.
Asked about the delay, said official responded: “We received the prize money amount late last year.”
The “unofficial” comments notwithstanding, the fact remains that the Indian cricket board has had nothing to say officially on the matter till date. And it is rather convenient that statements from unnamed cricket officials that dues owed would be cleared “very soon” or “by the end of this week” (which is it anyway), came a day after an inconvenient expose by a British newspaper.
On a related note, in the wake of the controversy, FICA has urged the Indian women’s team to form their own union. Zero chance of that happening.
