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The Board of Control for Cricket in India has begun to hand out the long-standing dues of the domestic cricketers for the tournaments that were put off in 2020-2021 season in the wake of the raging Covid-19 pandemic.
Many Indian cricketers struggled financially after the Ranji Trophy was not held last year for the first time in its history. The women's T20 games were also curtailed due to the pandemic.
"BCCI has started clearing the compensation amount due for not having the red ball tournament last season," a senior BCCI official said.
"A lot of players have started receiving money and there are still a lot of players who would be getting the payments. The process is expected to be completed in the next few weeks," he added.
In September last, the BCCI had said that the cricketers who participated in the 2019-20 season will be getting 50 per cent match fees as compensation for the 2020-21 season.
"The process is for state units to raise the invoice based on all those who had played in the season prior to COVID-19. The state units that raised invoices to BCCI have already had its players receiving money in their accounts," the BCCI official said.
"Some state units are yet to raise invoices so their players are waiting," the official added.
It will be a piece of welcome news for the domestic cricketers with the new Ranji Trophy season to be played from January 13 to March 17 across seven venues even though a change in schedule cannot be ruled out given the surge of COVID-19 cases in the country after the emergence of Omicron variant.
A player who featured in eight games in the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy, for example, received INR 11.20 lakh (USD 15,000 approx.), the match fee per day for the four-day tournament being INR 35,000 (USD 470 approx.). For 2020-21, under the compensation structures drawn up, the same player will receive INR 5.10 lakh (USD 6,800 approx.).
Players who didn't make the XI for certain games in 2019-20 will be compensated for 2020-21 on a pro-rata basis. For example, if a player was part of a team's XI for four games and on the bench for four games in the 2019-20 season, for 2020-21 he will be compensated with 50% of the match fees for four games and 50% of the corresponding fees for players outside the starting XI for the remainder of the games.
Earlier in the week, the BCCI was forced to postpone the Under-16 tournament, the Vijay Merchant Trophy, because "participants are still not vaccinated and as such, are vulnerable" as per BCCI secretary Jay Shah. Those below 18 years of age are still not eligible to take the vaccine in the country; eligible recipients in the age group of 15-18 years will only be administered Covid-19 vaccines starting from January 3.
Regarding payments for 2021-22, the board had earlier announced a significant increase in match fees for domestic players. The new pay slabs, which will be in place from this season, will have the senior men earning between INR 40,000 and 60,000 (USD 540 to 810 approx.) per day of cricket while senior women will earn up to INR 20,000 (USD 270 approx.) per day.
For the senior women players, who earlier earned INR 12,500 (USD 170 approx.) per one-day match and INR 6,250 (USD 85 approx.) per T20 match, the pay has been raised to INR 20,000 for playing XI members and INR 10,000 (USD 135 approx.) for those on the bench in both limited-overs formats. There currently isn't a first-class competition for women in India, the last multi-day women's tournament in the country - the 2017-2018 Senior Women's Inter-Zonal Three-Day Game - having been held in March-April 2018.
