BCCI Finance Committee puts domestic wage revision on hold, seeks detailed proposal

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) long-term planning of getting a substantial pay hike for its domestic cricketers got a huge blow on Saturday as the Finance Committee put the proposal on hold asking for a more detailed proposal from treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry.

Chaudhury’s paper on the revision of remuneration for the domestic cricketers seemed inadequate to the committee members, mainly chairman Jyotiraditya Scindia, who wants it to be more robust and exhaustive.

Scindia has asked the BCCI to study the payment structures in other countries and prepare a scheme accordingly, which can be a model for other boards to follow in future. A finance committee member explained, “Basically, he said the proposals are not good enough and need more research.”

It was reported around two months back that the BCCI was planning to increase the wages of domestic cricketers of all age-groups (senior, U-19, U-16) by a minimum of 50%. The percentage pay was last revised back in 2007 and is currently at 13%.

The current match fee for a Ranji Trophy player is Rs 10,000 per day and a player gets Rs 40,000 as match fee. However, a state team regular earns around Rs 12 lakh per season as he gets a percentage of broadcast rights earnings a well, which cumulates to a lump sum amount at the end of the season.

People associated with BCCI finances for long knows well that there are two ways to solve the matter- either increase the GRS (Gross Revenue Share) for the players that currently stands at 26%, or redefine the GRS so that the volume of the GRS swells.

“If the remuneration for the players were to increase, there has to increase in one of those components. So, there was a discussion that we need to explore ways to increase the volume,” said the member.

BCCI has been mulling over the idea of generating the additional costs of the pay hike from the IPL and the ICC under the GRS ambit, but nothing has been finalized yet.

The finance committee has, however, agreed to grant the state associations hosting Twenty20 Internationals, an amount of Rs 1.5 crore as hosting fee, same as for a One-Day International.