BCCI plans to hike pay for domestic, women cricketers

A senior women’s team cricketer gets only Rs 3,300 per match. (Source: PTI)

Domestic cricketers in India are all set to receive a 100 per cent hike in their match fees when the BCCI finance committee meets in Delhi on Thursday. Women cricketers and match officials too are expected to receive similarly significant raises.There has been a significant gap over the years, inflated of late especially, in terms of what international and domestic players get paid. The Indian Express has learnt that a domestic player who would earn Rs 10,000 a day during a Ranji Trophy match will get Rs 20,000 on a daily basis from the upcoming season.

The finance committee is planning to also increase the remuneration for umpires, match referees and video analysts. The last time, incidentally, that match officials received a hike was back in 2011.“Whatever percentage hike domestic cricketers will get, same percentage hike will be given to match officials. For example, if players get 50% hike per match day, then match officials too will get 50% hike,” sources in the BCCI informed.

There was a proposal from BCCI game development manager Ratnakar Shetty, however, to increase the daily match fees from Rs, 10,000 to 40,000 for the Ranji Trophy. The idea behind it was to compensate players who have been toiling hard in domestic cricket. There have been instances where IPL contracts have ensured vast disparities in what domestic players earn, regardless of what they’ve achieved in four-day cricket during a domestic season.

It is, however, unlikely that Shetty’s proposal will get a nod. The BCCI is learnt to have kept 26 per cent of its gross revenue earned from TV rights for players. There is also the money which they will earn from the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the IPL media right bid, which was won by Star India for a whopping Rs. 16,347.50 crores.

Meanwhile, the recent success of the Indian women’s team at the World Cup has made the BCCI re-think their pay structure. Here too the disparity has been rather drastic on occasions. Just for the record, players in the women’s senior team are paid Rs 3,300 per game whereas the board pays its Anti Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) officer Rs 5,000 per day during the Ranji Trophy.