BCCI shuts down reports of women cricketers not being paid for eight months of employment

On May 19, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the list of centrally contracted women cricketers for October 2020 to September 2021 period. While youngsters like Richa Ghosh and Shafali Verma were awarded for their impressive show, there were also some notable exclusions in Veda Krishnamurthy, Ekta Bisht, Anuja Patil and D. Hemlatha. Moreover, a report suggested that these four won’t be paid for the eight months of employment.

Notably, the contracts announced will cover the period from October 2020 to September 2021. During this tenure, Krishnamurthy, Bisht, Patil and Hemlatha were part of the Indian squad. However, these four players weren’t included in the central contract, and it was reported that they will not get paid for their services in this period. BCCI is indeed not amused with the rumours as an official called the report absolutely false.

The payments have been made for the contracted period: BCCI official

“This is absolutely false. Every player is paid in accordance with the terms of the contract with the BCCI. The payments have been made for the contracted period. The claim made in the story essentially assumes that a contract existed for almost eight months for which they would not be paid. This is incorrect, and I can only conclude that this is on the back of incorrect advice,” a BCCI official was quoted as per saying by Zee News.

“If a contract ended in September 2020 and the payments have been made in relation to that contract, it is wrong to imply otherwise,” the official defined.

According to a report in Telegraph, the Indian women’s cricket team has also not received the prize money for reaching the finals of the ICC T20 World Cup in February 2020. Reacting to this, the official said that the board has tightened the system further, and the finance department has been swift in answering players’ queries.

“No organisation is without its share of errors and with every error that slips through our system, our endeavour is to tighten the system further, which we have done even now. The finance department swiftly addresses all issues that are raised by players and there is no query or call for assistance by any player that goes unanswered,” the official asserted.

Meanwhile, the Indian women’s cricket team will travel to England in July for their next assignment. The full-fledged tour comprises one Test, three ODIs and as many T20Is. While Mithali Raj will lead the Test and ODI side, Harmanpreet Kaur will handle the reins in the shortest format.