The recent reports have suggested that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has cleared the quarterly dues of all its centrally-contracted players. They have also acknowledged that they will not let anyone suffer despite the uncertainty triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had some financial impacts in other countries. Major cricket boards like England and Australia have indicated for a pay cut to their players.
Describing the same to PTI, an anonymous BCCI official said, “Despite lockdown being announced from March 24, the BCCI was ready for any kind of eventuality. The board clears quarterly installments of central contract payments to its players. Plus the match fees of all those who played for India and India A during this period, all these dues were cleared at the end of the financial year.”
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England and Australian players have acknowledged that they will be embracing the pay cuts. However, a BCCI official said that the Board’s financial stability is helping then in such crunch situation despite other boards are struggling to even pay their domestic players.
The BCCI official explained, “One cricket board has put its players on furlough (government assistance scheme). There are talks about pay cuts everywhere. But I believe BCCI is capable of taking good care of its players as it has been all these years. Neither our international nor our domestic cricketers will suffer.”
However, the official also agreed that having the IPL later this year is a necessity considering the amount of financial loss that all stakeholders will have to bear if the event does not go ahead.
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He further added, “The situation is fluid right now. It can’t be said that it will be September when Asia Cup and home series against England is scheduled or October when World T20 is supposed to take place. If you don’t know when normalcy will return, how can you say that when will IPL happen.”
