The Board of Control for Cricket in India, the world’s richest cricket board, has not paid its top players their dues in 10 months, and is also yet to disburse match fees for two Tests, nine ODIs and eight T20Is since December last year.
According to a report in The Indian Express, 27 of BCCI’s elite contracted cricketers have not yet received the first of the quarterly instalments due since October 2019.
The report said that the last balance sheet made public by the cricket board showed a cash and bank balance of Rs 5,526 crore as of March 2018. Out of this, Rs 2,992 crore are in fixed deposits.
Payments to contracted cricketers are divided on grading, with the total retainer amount due annually at Rs 99 crore. Grade A+ cricketers get Rs 7 crore annually, and players under grades A, B and C get Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore, respectively.
The match fees for each Test, ODI and T20I are Rs 15 lakh, Rs 6 lakh and Rs 3 lakh, respectively.
In April 2018, the BCCI signed a five-year broadcasting deal with Star TV worth Rs 6,138.1 crore. However, players have confirmed that they have not received their dues since October last year.
The report also said that the delay is partly because of the uncertainty on top.
The BCCI has not had a chief financial officer since December, and a chief executive officer and general manager (cricket operations) since last month. It said that the positions were not filled after their contract were not extended by the current administration.
The tenure of BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had come to an end as there is a mandatory cooling-off period for administrators after six years in office. However, the board is awaiting a favourable ruling from the Supreme Court to waive off the cooling-off period so that Ganguly can continue as BCCI chief in the current situation.
As per the IE report, eight players have confirmed that they have not yet received dues in the past 10 months, but the board is expected to ask players to raise invoices for contract dues every three months.
It said that since the new list of contracted players was announced, the BCCI has not directed players to raise the invoice, and they haven’t been paid their dues.
