Hyderabad: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which happens to be the world's richest cricket board, has not yet paid its 27 elite contracted players since October. According to a report carried out by a national daily, players' quarterly payment is due since October last year.
BCCI has not paid match fees for the two Tests, nine ODIs and eight T20I matches that India played since October 2019. The total amount due is Rs 99 crore.
Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah come under Grade A+ category. These cricketers receive Rs 7 crore annually. Grade A players get 5 crores while grade B gets Rs 3 crore, and grade C is allotted Rs 1 crore.
The match fees for each Test, ODI and T20 are Rs 15 lakh, Rs 6 lakh, and Rs 3 lakh, respectively. At present BCCI has a bank balance of Rs Rs 5,526 crore, as of March 2018, including Rs 2,992 crore in fixed deposits.
BCCI also enjoys steady cash flow of Rs 6,138.1 core in April 2018 which the broadcaster pays in instalment.
The reason why their payment is due is because of the fact that the position of the Chief Financial officer has been vacant since December. Other key positions including Chief Executive Officer and General Manager (Cricket Operations) have been vacant too since July.
This comes as BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah have completed their tenure as per Lodha Committee recommendations. The board has now approached the Supreme Court to quash the “cooling off” clause in the board’s constitution so that Ganguly and Shah can continue in their respective positions.
Meanwhile, payment of domestic players from different states including Jharkhand, Mumbai, Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Pondicherry, Baroda, Railways, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh has also not been paid either.
On August 2 the governing council of IPL is likely to sit to finalize the schedule for the forthcoming edition of IPL and other arrangements for the tournament which is to be held in the UAE in October-November.
