The Indian cricket team is set to get a whopping pay hike as the BCCI is planning to double the salaries of top international players for the coming season.
According to a report by The Times of India, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) is working on a formula to add Rs 200 crore to the existing corpus of Rs 180 crore in this season to provision for the hike next season.
This development comes weeks after India captain Virat Kohli and chief coach Ravi Shastri demanded a hike in the players’ earnings.
On March 22, the BCCI doubled the retainers for all contracted players to Rs 2 crore, Rs 1 crore and Rs 50 lakh respectively for the three graded categories -- A, B and C. The board also enhanced the fees to Rs 15 lakh, 6 lakh and 3 lakh per Test match, ODI and T20 International respectively. But, the players were unhappy even with these enhanced pay structure announced by the board.
Their contention, according to the reports, was that the cricketers from England, Australia and South Africa were being paid much more by their respective cricket boards.
Shastri had earlier said "it's (what they are getting) nothing, (Rs) 2 crore is peanuts. How much is an Australian (cricketer) getting?".
Singling out top Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, who does not have a contract with any franchise team in the cash-awash IPL, Shastri said the BCCI should ensure that the Saurashtra player was not worried for not being part of the T20 league and, thus, missing out on a huge pay-out.
Presently, 26% of BCCI’s annual revenue is divided among international players (13%), domestic players (10.6% ) and women and juniors (2.4%), reported TOI.
But if CoA’s proposal is ratified, a top player like Virat Kohli will earn more than of Rs. 10 crore compared to the Rs 5.51 crore he did from 46 matches in 2017. In the domestic circuit, a senior Ranji Trophy player’s emoluments are likely to go up to Rs 30 lakh from Rs. 12 to 15 lakh currently.
"Senior cricketers are certainly going to get a 100% raise and even domestic players would get the same percentage increase," a source close to CoA told Times of India. "Since, these cricketers are the reason for BCCI's revenues, can't the board afford another Rs 200 crore for their salaries?" a top board official said.
However, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) acting secretary CK Khanna on Friday said that nothing has been finalised yet on the possible pay hike of the Indian cricketers.
"Everything is still under discussion. Nothing is finalised. There are chances of having another set of meetings over pay hike proposal. As of now, BCCI acting treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry is working on draft proposal. It will be discussed in BCCI Finance Committee and in SGM," ANI quoted Khanna as saying.
