The BCCI has the reputation for being the richest and most popular cricketing board in international cricket. Therefore it comes as a surprise that the BCCI has not yet paid its 27 elite contracted cricketers their salaries from October 2019. The players have not received their salaries for 8 T20 games, 9 ODIs and 2 tests since December 2019.
BCCI Needs To Pay Out 99 crore
The BCCI has different tiers when it comes to its annual contracts. The lowest tier pays out 1 crore respectively, the next two levels pay out 3 crore and 5 crore respectively while the highest tier which features the likes of captain Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and J Bumrah pays out 7 crore annually.
The players receive 3 lakhs for each T20 game, 6 lakhs for an ODI and 15 lakhs for every test match. This is quite a bit of money that the players need to collect from the BCCI but so far no one is complaining.
While COVID-19 has impacted the revenue of all cricketing boards including the BCCI, there is no dearth of money in the BCCI’s pockets. Based on the info available from the last balance sheet released by the BCCI, they had 2,992 crore rupees in fixed deposits and a bank balance of 5,526 crore rupees in March 2018. A month later, the BCCI signed a 6,138.1 crore deal with Star TV for 5 years and gets another 440 crore rupees per year from main IPL sponsor VIVO.
This is why it is a bit baffling why the BCCI has not paid out its players as there is no shortage of funds with the BCCI. Given the fact that the BCCI has the opportunity to host the 2020 IPL in the UAE later this year, its main cash cow will still bring in the funds.
Why Are Players Not Protesting?
There have been no player protests or complaints regarding the non-payment of salaries from the players and this does not come as a surprise. The first reason is because the 27 contracted players are pretty well-off financially as they make a lot of money from sponsorships and their IPL contracts. These players are not depending solely on the BCCI’s annual salary to sustain their lives. Hence, they can afford to wait and not protest about the non-payment of salaries.
The second reason why these players are not protesting is because they know that it is not in their best interests to go against the BCCI and talk to the media. If they decide to speak negatively against the BCCI, they realize that they could get into the bad books of the BCCI and that could reflect on their cricketing careers.
While no one will admit this in the open, it is a known fact that players can get dropped, de-promoted from their contract grades or even left out in the next set of contracts.
Former BCCI commentator Sanjay Manjrekar is a perfect example of this. He bucked the BCCI and went against their operating procedures by criticizing Indian players during his commentary stint. As a result, the BCCI decided not to renew his contract and left him out in the cold.
Manjrekar wrote a letter to the BCCI in July 2020 apologizing for going against their rules and asking them to reconsider their decision and bring him back into the fold as he was no willing to do whatever they asked of him.
No Comment From The BCCI
While the media has raised the fact that the BCCI is yet to pay out its contracted players, the BCCI has not provided any statement for the delay and is unlikely to do so given the fact that the BCCI is currently focusing on getting the 2020 IPL up and running.
The BCCI will pay out its players in its own time and till then the players will continue to wait patiently.
