BCCI’s state unit Uttarakhand dishonour payment to its Ranji support staff

It has come to light that not just the BCCI, but even its state-affiliated units, have been flouting the Supreme Court’s Lodha Committee -- headed by former CJI Justice RM Lodha -- ruling that these sports bodies work with greater accountability and transparency in their day-to-day functioning.

Sportskeeda is in possession of an email that highlights the way in which the Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU), a body that came into existence because of a one-state one-vote reform floated by Lodha committee, is openly flouting rules by not compensating the support staff of its Ranji Trophy team.

The email in question was written by Danny Pereira, a sports physiotherapist, who was contracted by CAU from September 2019 to February 2020. Notably, Pereira has also worked with the National Cricket Academy. In this mail, Pereira reveals that he has not been paid his pending dues for months.

“From what I understand the BCCI has cleared payments of contracted players and also allotted funds to the State Associations. In my case, however, despite my efforts as the team physiotherapist of CAU's Ranji team, I haven't received any payments, and am facing great hardships on account of this,” Pereira wrote in his email to CAU.

When Sportskeeda tried to reach out to CAU secretary Mahim Verma, who was also the BCCI vice-president until recently, he wasn’t available for comments.

"I've only been paid daily allowance for Vijay Hazare trophy": Danny Pereira

While holding the CAU responsible for his misery he further stated, “During the entire past season I have only been paid a daily allowance for the Vijay Hazare trophy, and no other payments have been made to me. As promised by the CAU, I was supposed to receive my first part payment for my professional fees in the month of December, and the second part-payment at the end of the season."

"But it has not been done till date. Also the cricket season had ended in the month of February for CAU, so I was expecting them to pay my total professional fees and daily allowances, along with the GST amount, but that too has not happened till date," Pereira further added.

Pereira said that payments accrue to him “for 9 months”. “As you know, the entire world is going through the corona crisis, and I, being the sole bread earner in my family, with another four mouths to feed, am facing immense hardships to make ends meet. I have exhausted all my savings and now am facing non-payments of loan EMIs. This also being my only source of income, the delay in payments have made it difficult for me and my family,” he revealed in the email to the association.

Pereira confessed that he was wanting to avoid writing an email to the association, but circumstances forced him to do so. “I had been avoiding writing to you, as I was hoping that the payments would be done as soon as funds were received from BCCI, as previously the reason given was that they had not received any funds from BCCI. But now it has been quite some time that the CAU has received funds, but have not released my payments,” he stated.