BCCI to incentivize women cricketers and men's Test stars

BCCI’s treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry has proposed a move at the board’s finance committee meeting to reduce the fiscal imbalance that is created after players miss out on big fat IPL deals.

The women’s team performed exceptionally well in the World Cup earlier this year, and since then there has been a demand for gender equality in this male-dominated sport. The annual retainer fees for women cricketers will boost up to new levels with this new proposed plan. The plan is to give Rs 50 lakh each for the four players in Grade A, Rs 30 lakh each for the six players in Grade B and Rs 15 lakh for the 10 players in Grade C. Currently, the women players get Rs 15 lakh and Rs 10 lakh each in the first two categories.

According to The Indian Express, a Test Player Fund will be formed through which the money will be transferred. Also, a cap will be fixed on the IPL fee for uncapped Indian and foreign cricketers. The proposal aims to prevent young players from going for the cash-rich T20 league over First-Class cricket. The IPL franchise will be able to bid above the limit, however, the entire amount will not be given to the player, rather, the remaining cash will go to the Test Player Fund. The issue of remuneration of the umpires is also being dealt with by this proposal. The daily match fee of the Umpires in the Elite and ICC panels will be increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000. The ones in the BCCI panel will get Rs 15,000, whereas the remuneration for match referees will be doubled to Rs 20,000 per day. There will be a substantial hike in the fees for scorers and video analysts as well. 

BCCI will also renew the media rights shortly and the board is expecting a substantial increase over the existing deal as well. However, the proposed payment structure does not talk about the revenue stream from the IPL, for which the media rights went for more than Rs 16,000 crore for a five-year period.