MUMBAI: The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) is working on a plan to add Rs two billion to the existing budget of Rs 1.8 billion this season to provide for a hike of cricketers who play for India, as well as domestic players.
The CoA is close to chalking out a formula that could double the salaries of the senior and the junior sides, reports the Times of India. India skipper Virat Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri also presented their case at the meeting with the CoA last month, stating that the management fully deserved a satisfactory hike.
According to the current distribution, 26% of BCCI’s annual revenue is allocated in three ways – 13% for international cricketers, 10.6% for domestic cricketers and the remainder for women and juniors. However, a major revamp is set to take place for all the three categories.
If the hike comes through, Kohli, who earned Rs 50.51 million from 46 matches in 2017, could now see his salary increase to Rs 100 million per year by the BCCI. A Ranji Trophy cricketer who earned between Rs 1.2 to Rs 1.5 million per year, could earn up to Rs 3 million, after the salary hike proposal.
“Senior cricketers are certainly going to get a 100% raise and even domestic players would get the same percentage increase,” a source close to the CoA told the TOI. “Since, these cricketers are the reason for BCCI’s revenues, can’t the board afford another Rs 200 crore for their salaries?” a top board said.
The report states that former India captain Sourav Ganguly also the raised the issue of low salary for domestic players at the BCCI SGM on Monday, explaining how the players need to be compensated like international players.
“Because of the sheer bulk of the money, the senior Indian cricketers can’t be given half of the projected 26% revenue of BCCI. It would be distributed in such a way that domestic cricketers also get big hikes,” the official added.
