BCCI responds after receiving flak for not paying women’s team the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 prize money

Earlier today, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was placed under major scrutiny after it was revealed that the Indian women’s team is yet to receive its share of prize money from the ICC T20 World Cup 2020. In March 2020, the Women’s team reached the finals of the T20 World Cup but lost to Australia. 

As the runners-up, the Women’s team was bound to receive a handsome amount of $500,000 from the International Cricket Council. However, the players haven’t received their share of money even a year later and it is learned that BCCI is holding up all the money. 

After the Indian board received massive flak on social media for their indifferent behavior towards the women’s team, BCCI has issued a clarification stating that they received the prize amount late last year and all the cricketers will get their due by end of the coming week. 

“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 as quoted by Times of India.

When the official was questioned regarding the massive delay in the payments, he sided with BCCI saying that the processing of players’ payments in BCCI does take around three to four months for all teams (across age groups). The official added that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has affected the functioning of the Indian board too as the head office in Mumbai was shut for a major portion of time.

Everything is taking a bit of time because of the prevailing situation: BCCI official

“We received the prize money amount late last year. It’s not just one payment for women. Whether it’s the central contract of the men’s team, international match fees, domestic fees of men and women, everything is taking a bit of time because of the prevailing situation,” the official stated.

Further, a former BCCI official clarified that even before Covid-19, the players received payment for a domestic tournament hosted in March in September only. He added that one can’t blame the Indian board before knowing the exact date when they received the payment from ICC.

“Even before the COVID situation worsened, the domestic season would end in March and the complete payments were only cleared by September. So, in this case, you need to check when did BCCI receive the payments. If they received it just after the tournament, then it’s a delay but the processing does take some time. And to the best of my knowledge, it’s the same for both men and women,” said the former office-bearer.

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