Women cricketers get their cheques, but wait begins for encashment

ON WEDNESDAY, before Mumbai Indians took on Sunrisers Hyderabad at Wankhede Stadium, Ravi Shastri honoured former women cricketers Behroze Edulji, Sunita Singh, Vrinda Bhagat, Deepa Kulkarni, Sangita Dabir and Arundhati Ghosh with a one-time benefit award for their contributions to Indian cricket. The former Indian team director and renowned commentator handed each of the six women with the token over-sized cheques.

But it turns out that, Edulji, Singh, Bhagat, Kulkarni, Dabir and Ghosh will have to wait for at least another week before the money is actually transferred into their accounts. The Indian Express has learnt that the delay in payment is due to number of BCCI office-bearers were a tad clueless about the committee of administrator's (COA) approval to disburse the onetime payments. BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary, meanwhile, only recieved the approval mail from the COA on Friday and is expected to process the payments over the next three days.

According to a BCCI official, the account details of the six former women's cricketers have been sought for and that the money will be transferred soon. .

"The COA had approved the idea to reward women cricketers and we have done that. The order of the COA has been followed and now payments will be made. Last month, it was decided in the IPL governing council meeting that they will be felicitated during the IPL and that the actual cheques will be handed out later," he said.

However, the decision to hand the memento cheques on Wednesday hasn't gone down too well with many members. They raised the objection that the COA could have waited for the payments to be actually made before felicitating the cricketers at the Wankhede. Some members also felt that the COA hadn't acknowledged a decision taken by the BCCI working committee in 2015 under the presidency of Shashank Manohar to honour certain notable former women's cricketers with one-time benefits. The then working committee had back then asked the finance committee to study the feasibility of these payments. But it's the COA that finally approved the one-time benefit plan.

The awards were handed out on the basis of the number of matches played by the six women. A cheque of Rs 15 lakh each was given to Edulji, Singh and Bhagat while Dabir and Ghosh received Rs 25 lakh each.

Though none of the beneficiaries were ready to come on record, the ones that this paper spoke to are hopeful of receiving their money soon.

The women cricketers with Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Manjrekar.