BCCI doubles annual pay for 32 key players
New Delhi: The BCCI on Wednesday doubled the annual retainership fee of India’s 32 centrally-contracted cricketers with current skipper Virat Kohli and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the `2-crore grade-A bracket along with five others.
The committee of administrators announced that grade-A players would now be getting `2 crore as compared to the earlier `1 crore, while grade-B and C players will get `1 crore and `50 lakh, respectively.
The match fee for Test matches has been hiked to `5 lakh per match from `7.50 lakh earlier, while ODI and T20 Internationals will make them richer by `6 lakh and `3 lakh, respectively. All the payments will be effective from October 1, 2016.
New Delhi, March 22: The Committee of Administrators, in their second status report, has mentioned that Saurashtra Cricket Association which has in excess of `250 crore in their bank account sought for funds to conduct upcoming IPL matches smoothly.
Not far behind is Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, who had request for funds to organise fourth India vs Australia Test, starting March 25, despite having `65 crore plus in association’s bank account.
Incidentally ousted BCCI president Anurag Thakur was the HPCA boss when the above mentioned amount of fund was deposited in the state association’s coffers while former board secretary Niranjan Shah ran the show in Saurashtra. Saurashtra Cricket Association, which was headed by Shah, has asked for funds to conduct IPL matches but COA Status report mentions that the associations current/savings account has a cumulative amount of over `213 crore as per March 31, 2016 along with another `42 crore plus deposited by October 31, 2016.
The COA has mentioned about all the difficulties that they have been facing so far which includes how state associations are asking for release of funds without complying with the Lodha Committee reforms, as per Supreme Court order.
In their second status report filed on Wednesday, under Annexure C (Point 20) COA states: “One of the intransigent state/member association is Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association which has not demonstrated with Honourable Court orders dated October 7, 2016 and October 21, 2016 but has sought funds for smooth conduct of the Test match between India and Australia scheduled to be played from March 25, 2017 onwards.
“It is relevant to note that the HPCA had an amount of `6,26,92,775 (Rupees Six crore Twenty Six lakh Ninety Two thousand Seven hundred and Seventy Five) in current/savings account and deposits as on March 31, 2016, and a further amount of `59,44,30,724 (Rupees Fifty Nine crore Forty Four lakh Thirty thousand Seven hundred and Twenty Four) was remitted by BCCI to HPCA between April 2016 and October 2016. This is without including an additional amount of `16.73 crore that was remitted on October 1, 2016 and has been directed to be kept in term deposit subject directions of this Honourable Court,” said the report.