Sanjay Bangar and R Sridhar to receive a 50 per cent hike in their salary

What’s the story?

Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar and fielding coach R Sridhar will now be paid Rs. 15 lakh each month as BCCI has decided to give a 50% pay-hike to the assistant coaches of Team India. Both Bangar and Sridhar who have been with the national team since 2014, had been requesting the board to increase their pay of 10 lakh for some time.

As a matter of fact, it’s learnt that the two had discussed the matter with both then-president Anurag Thakur and then-secretary Ajay Shirke during the England series a few months back. Both Thakur and Shirke agreed to look into the matter before they were dismissed from their respective positions in the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

In case you didn’t know...

On Wednesday, the BCCI announced the annual players’ contracts, doubling the annual retainer amounts across all three categories. This meant that the Grade-A cricketers would be getting INR 2 crores, the Grade-B cricketers would be getting INR 1 crore and the Grade-C cricketers would be getting INR 50 lakh.

While Cheteshwar Pujara, Murali Vijay were all promoted to the Grade-A contracts, veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh alongside Suresh Raina found themselves out of a contract. Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra, both of whom made successful comebacks to the limited-overs side were in the list of contracted players with Yuvraj Singh getting a Grade-B contract and Nehra getting a Grade-C contract.

The heart of the matter

After the sacking of Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke, the plea for the hike in the pay of the support staff was obscure for a while before the COA took it up. A few weeks back, CEO Rahul Johri came up with the offer of a 25% increment in the salary of the support staff who turned it down stating that they had been promised a 100% pay raise by Thakur and Shirke.

Team India coach Anil Kumble then took the matter to the COA once again with both parties eventually agreeing to the 50% hike. A source in the BCCI said, “There are no contracts for the support staff and their salary had not been increased for the past two years. If they can double the pay in the players’ annual contracts, the COA felt that the support staff too deserved at least a 50 per cent hike”.

What’s next?

The support staff is now at Dharamsala, preparing with the rest of the team ahead of the fourth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy which will decide the outcome of the series.

Heading into the decider, Sanjay Bangar will have his task cut out with the fitness of Virat Kohli in doubt. Shreyas Iyer has been called up and the India batting coach has only a few days to fine tune the Mumbaikar and get ready if the need be so.

Author’s Take

The Indian Team has been having a brilliant purple patch under Anil Kumble, having attained the No.1 spot in the ICC Test rankings and having won all but one series they have played. The support staff, especially Sanjay Bangar and R Sridhar has been pivotal to the successes achieved by the team and they have rightfully earned the hike in their salary.