PUNE: Clouds of uncertainty continue to hover over the future of IPL 2020 with coronavirus continuing to spread its tentacles globally. The season that was to get underway from March 29 has been suspended till April 15 and looks the possibility of it getting underway next week is next to impossible.
BCCI is reportedly considering various options including a truncated season beginning May or even pushing it to the latter half of 2020. However, should it be scrapped altogether, the Indian cricket board will reportedly lose a whopping Rs 2,000 crore in revenue.
In a bid to minimise the loss of such proportion, the board is likely to pass it onto the players meaning a pay-cut is in order.
“Obviously if the organisation takes a financial hit, the salaries of the employees get affected as well. The pay cuts are a possibility,” a BCCI official was quoted as saying by the Mumbai Mirror on Wednesday.
According to the English daily, the BCCI allocates 26 per cent of its revenue to players – 13 per cent of it goes to international stars while the remaining is distributed among the domestic and junior cricketers.
The daily further reported that the board annually allocates Rs 150 crore for international players and Rs 70 crore to domestic cricketers. If the cricket board has to suffer revenue loss in the absence of IPL, “international players’ income will exceed their entitled share in the board income.”
India captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah are among the top-earners who have A-plus contracts with the BCCI, drawing a salary of Rs 7 crore annually. At the same time, head coach Ravi Shastri gets paid Rs 9 crore annually.
The players will suffer a loss on two fronts – annual contracts plus pay cut in IPL deals with their respective franchisees even in case of a
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