|| Desk Report ||

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BBCI), the world’s richest cricket board hasn’t paid some of the world’s richest cricketers their dues for close to 10 months right now.

Since October last year, the BCCI’s 27 elite contracted players are yet to receive the first of the quarterly installments. The board has also not disbursed match fees for the two Tests, nine ODIs and eight T20 games that the national team has played since December 2019.

According to the last balance sheet, made public by the BCCI, it had cash and bank balance of Rs 5,526 crore, as of March 2018, including Rs 2,992 crore in fixed deposits. The BCCI signed a five-year broadcasting deal with Star TV worth Rs 6,138.1 crore in April 2018.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and Secretary Jay Shah, too, have exhausted their tenure, as per the board’s Constitution. And so, the board has approached the Supreme Court for annulling the “cooling off” clause in the Constitution so that both can retain their positions.

A senior India cricketer speaking to The Indian Express said the board usually asks the players to raise invoices for contract dues every three months.

 “But this time, we haven’t heard from them since the new list of contracted cricketers was announced. The BCCI used to pay the contract money in four installments but now we don’t know when the payment will come. There is no clarity. Last month, we were asked to raise the invoice for the New Zealand tour in February. The money hasn’t been credited yet,” said the cricketer, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The payment for the first-class and age-group cricketers, too, has been delayed. Several domestic players from Jharkhand, Mumbai, Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Pondicherry, Baroda, Railways, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh told The Indian Express that the “full settlement” for the last season hasn’t been done.