MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has begun disbursing long-standing dues of hundreds of domestic cricketers – male and female – for tournaments that had to be shelved due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2020-21 season.
The Ranji Trophy was cancelled for the first time in its 85-year history in 2020-21 for the senior men and in the women’s category, the T20 tournament was shelved due to the pandemic, as a result of which, many players struggled financially.
Taking note of the players’ concerns, the BCCI had formed a seven-member committee, led by former India captain Mohammad Azharuddin, to find a suitable compensation mechanism for domestic cricketers.
Now, in line with the formula worked out by the group, players who have duly sent in filled-in invoices have begun to be compensated 50% of their regular earnings, ESPNcricinfo reports.
While the process has begun, a number of players are yet to receive payments because of procedural delays with regards to invoices raised. The delays are understood to be due to issues at the state associations’ end.
The clearing of payments comes ahead of the start of the new Ranji Trophy season from January 13 to March 17 across seven venues. However, there is some confusion among certain players over further tweaks to the schedule owing to the rise in COVID-19 cases across the country, accelerated by the Omicron variant.
The board had earlier announced a significant increase in match fees for domestic players regarding their payments for 2021-22, IANS reports.
The new pay slabs, which will be in place from this season, will have the senior men earning between Rs 40,000 and 60,000 per day of cricket while senior women will earn up to Rs 20,000 per day.
That hike is a small one for the players in the first category (under 20 matches) but an almost 100% hike for more experienced players (40-plus games), while those who have played between 21 and 40 matches will earn Rs 50,000.
Earlier, senior men cricketers earned Rs 35,000 per day for first-class and one-day games regardless of how many caps they had, and Rs 17,500 per game for T20s.
For the senior women players, who earlier earned Rs 12,500 per one-day match and Rs 6,250 per T20 match, the pay has been raised to Rs 20,000 for playing XI members and Rs 10,000 for those on the bench in both limited-overs formats.
