The Indian cricketers have not received their match fees for the last 6 months along with the Rs. 1crore incentive assured to them by BCCI for an outstanding home season in the Test cricket. India began their campaign by inflicting a 3-0 whitewash on New Zealand and then followed it up with a 4-0 win against England. They won the one-off Test against Bangladesh and ended their season with a 2-1 win over the Aussies.
In September 2016, Indian team began the home season by whitewashing the NewZealand team by 3-0. Soon after that, the Englishmen came to India for a 5-match Test series buy they also went back by losing the series 4-0 at the end of 2016. India also sealed the victory against Bangladesh in the one-off Test in Hyderabad. The season ended on a high when team Indian thrashed the team from down under by 2-1 in the four-match Test series.
In recent times, the payment issues have taken a limelight due to an ongoing split between the Committee of Administrators (CoA) and the office bearers of BCCI. As per the reports of Indian Express, the board’s distant relationship with ICC over revenue is cited to be another reason for the payment issues. The BCCI needs to pay Rs. 15 lakhs to every member in the playing XI of a Test match and Rs. 7 lakhs to every cricketer who warmed the bench. before this, the Indian cricketers used to get their dues within two months of a completion of a Test match.
Reasons for the delay in match fees
It is not only the Indian men’s team who are has not got the dues but the women’s team is also waiting for the match fees from very long. Each and every member of the women’s team receives Rs 1 lakh for every series they play.
As per the quotes of Indian express, one of the members of India’s men squad said, “Usually, we get our dues within a month or 15 days of a Test match but this time, the delay has been long. We don’t know what the reason is but such delays have never happened earlier.”
Sources close to BCCI has stated that the reason for the delay of dues has been that can be the tiff between the Supreme Court mandated CoA which is currently handling the functionalities of BCCI. The source also said that the revenue issue with the ICC is another reason behind the delay of payment.
One of the BCCI officials asserted, “The payment is delayed because of various issues. The BCCI didn’t have the official signatory in February and later there was confusion over whether Amitabh Choudhary (acting secretary) can clear these payments because only the secretary can give all approvals. As for the women’s payments, their agreement with BCCI is yet to be signed and once it is officially done, their payment will be released.”
