Over the last few hours, the news of Committee of Administrators (CoA) chief Vinod Rai, Diana Edulji and BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, along with the Indian cricket team representatives, skipper Virat Kohli, former captain MS Dhoni and coach Ravi Shastri, mutually agreeing on the pay hike for the Indian cricketers.
It is good to see the Indian cricketers getting their much-deserved pay hike as they play out of their skin for the pride of the nation. But, the sad reality is that the Indian domestic players, who give their 100% on the field throughout the year, are yet to receive their payments for not only the ongoing 2017-18 season but also the 2016-17 season, that started in August 2016 and got over in March 2017.
Usually, the payments for the domestic tournaments will be processed a month after the tournament gets over. But, in this case, the payments are not received by the players in spite of them waiting for over six months.
It has been identified that players who play for Odisha, Assam, Tripura, Hyderabad and some other states have either got only a part of their fees or haven't received a single penny for the last season.
"It's been quite difficult for players. Many have got their Ranji Trophy dues only a week back. There are a lot of them who rely heavily on this income. We don't know why there is a delay in payments. We haven't yet got our Vijay Hazare and T20 tournament salaries," an Odisha team source told Times Of India.
"We are in the dark not knowing whom to approach. Usually, we get the payment within a month of the season end. Some associations pay at the end of the match, some pay cheques and some at the end of the season. The players are worried while the associations are not coming up with the reason for the delay.Last year, the players had to be on the road for a long time. It's been very difficult. There are differences in the daily allowance that's been paid by various associations too. There is no uniformity," say players from Assam and Tripura,
The reason behind the delay is because the state associations have ensured that BCCI transfer the players' match fee to the individuals directly and the associations will take care of the daily allowances.
A domestic cricketer is supposed to be paid 40,000 INR for playing a Ranji Trophy match (first-class), 10,000 INR for a Vijay Hazare Trophy match (List A) and 5000 INR per match for Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. BCCI are responsible for these payments while the daily allowance which is paid by the respective state cricket associations.
Most of the players who play domestic cricket are heavily reliant on the money they get from these matches and a delay in processing the payment will only affect them mentally and it can lead to the players not giving their 100% on the field.
The BCCI, who are the richest Cricket board in the world, should act as quickly as possible and make sure that the issue is sorted out and the players get their hard-earned money at the earliest.
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