Reports: BCCI hasn’t paid its cricketers their dues for close to 10 months

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is known as the richest cricket board across the globe. Any young player, over the financial aspect, aspires to be associated with the Indian board one day and be awarded the BCCI’s dividends. However, the richest cricketing body hasn’t paid some cricketers their dues for close to 10 months now.

The BCCI’s 27 elite-contracted players are yet to receive the first of the quarterly instalments, which is due since October last year. The Indian side was involved in two Tests, nine ODIs and eight T20Is since December 2019. However, the board is yet to dole out the match fees of these encounters.

The total retainer amount due for contracted cricketers annually is Rs 99 crore, which is divided on the basis of a grade which a player gets allotted. Grade A+ cricketers Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah get Rs 7 crore annually while other players– Grade A, B, C– get Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore, respectively. The match fees for each Test, ODI and T20 are Rs 15 lakh, Rs 6 lakh and Rs 3 lakh, respectively.

However, eight of the contracted players confirmed that they haven’t received their dues in 10 months, as reported by The Indian Express. When the BCCI had last made their balance sheet public, it showed that the board had cash and bank balance of Rs 5,526 crore in March 2018. Furthermore, the board had also signed a staggering five-year worth broadcasting deal with Star worth Rs 6,138.1 crore.

Payment for first-class and age-group cricketers has also been delayed

According to sources, the board has partly put the blame on the current uncertain situation across the globe. To make things worse, current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah have also exhausted their tenure but the board has approached the Supreme Court for nullifying the ‘cooling-off’ period so that both can retain their respective positions.

A senior India cricketer also revealed that the board usually asks players to raise invoices for contract dues every three months. However, the players haven’t heard from the board since they put out the new list of contracted players.

“But this time, we haven’t heard from them since the new list of contracted cricketers was announced. The BCCI used to pay the contract money in four instalments but now we don’t know when the payment will come. There is no clarity. Last month, we were asked to raise the invoice for the New Zealand tour in February. The money hasn’t been credited yet,” said the cricketer to The Indian Express on the condition of anonymity.

Moreover, the payment for first-class and age-group cricketers has also been delayed. Several domestic cricketers from various states revealed that they haven’t received the “full settlement” for the last season.