BCCI faces demand for salary hike, from women and junior selectors

WITH THE Indian cricket board yet to consider their demand for a pay hike, the women’s selection committee has refused to sign their annual contract and are working under protest. They picked the Indian women’s team for Asia Cup which India won recently, under protest.

The women’s selection committee headed by Hemlata Kala, and comprising Anjali Pendharkar, Shashi Gupta, Lopamudra Banerjee and Sudha Shah want their salary to be increased from Rs 5 lakh per annum to Rs 25 lakh per annum.

The committee even met board president Anurag Thakur last month, but their matter remains unresolved. Most of the selectors The Indian Express spoke to, are unhappy with the board paying different wages for men and women. They feel the “approach and work pressure” is same.

Whereas the men’s junior selection committee too invited the board’s ire with a series of demands over the past few months.

Sources in the BCCI confirmed to The Indian Express that the junior selection committee chairman Venkatesh Prasad wants a few demands to be fulfilled. The former India pacer has sent many mails to board secretary Shirke in this regard, however, board has not accorded any importance to them till date.

The junior selection committee wants their pay scale to be same as senior selection committee. BCCI pays the senior selection committee Rs 60 lakh per year whereas junior committee are paid Rs 40 lakh per annum. The committee also wants their allowance to be increased from Rs 3500 to Rs 5000 per day. The junior selectors want to travel in business class whereas they are demanding their accommodation be in five star hotels.

“They also want one member of the junior selection committee to travel for India A games. Whereas the chairman should be involved in India A selection process, at the same time they want a dress code. We don’t know what to tell these selectors especially since they know that we can’t do anything now after Supreme Court order,” a BCCI official said.

The Indian board is upset with these kinds of demands coming in especially at a time when court proceedings are on and many office bearer’s future hangs in balance.

“The demands by women’s selectors are wrong. You can’t compare the amount of work and pressure these men’s selectors have compared to the women’s selection committee. At the same time look at how many games they cover every year. We hardly have a few tournaments for women’s teams,” a senior BCCI official says.

For the record, the women’s senior teams are picked after watching 3 domestic tournaments, as well as u-19 and u-23 competitions. The senior women’s team competed in 4 series this year.

The junior selection committee too had demanded a laptop earlier which the board had declined.

The junior selection committee wants their pay scale to be same as senior selection committee. BCCI pays the senior selection committee Rs 60 lakh per year whereas junior committee are paid Rs 40 lakh per annum.

The women’s selection committee want their salary to be increased from `5L to ` 25L while to men junior selectors want to be paid on par with the senior panel.