BCCI okays pay hike for players

NEWDELHI:The BCCI general body meeting turned out to be a damp squib as the acting officials and states representatives finally agreed upon the CoA decision to introduce a revised players’ salary structure.

The revised structure, brought in by the CoA last August much to the displeasure of acting BCCI officials, has four categories --A+ (~7 core annually), A (~5cr), B (~3cr) and C (~1cr).

The CoA had on Thursday threatened to give unilateral approval to the revised pay structure if the officials failed to approve it. The meeting, which was not sanctioned by the CoA, with CEO Rahul Johri staying away, proved that there is no end to the differences between the two parties running the board. The main cause of conflict remains the Board committees.

“The meeting decided to retain all the existing committees of the BCCI. It also authorised the acting secretary, Amitabh Choudhary, to sign on all the affidavits on behalf of the BCCI,” said acting president CK Khanna.

While some like the finance and infrastructure committees had been working smoothly, the committee on the National Cricket Academy (NCA) had caused a rift. The CoA had been maintaining that only qualified officials should be on the committees.

The NCA, however, has had Niranjan Shah on board. Shah is above 70 and has been Saurashtra Cricket Association chief for decades. In fact, a request by the Board officials to let the NCA committee to perform the foundation-laying ceremony at the NCA was turned down by the CoA earlier.