BCCI to pay top players who missed IPL due to injury

Sachin Tendulkar is among five Indian players who will be compensated by the BCCI for missing IPL and Champions League T20 matches in 2011 due to injuries sustained while representing India, Mail Today has reported. The others to benefit from the board's decision are Zaheer Khan, Rohit Sharma, Munaf Patel and Ashish Nehra.

ESPNcricinfo understands that a decision to compensate players who miss the IPL after getting injured while on India duty was taken during thr BCCI's working committee meeting earlier this month. The report quoted an unnamed BCCI official as saying, "A few senior players -- Sachin [Tendulkar], MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, and Ashish Nehra etc. -- had met [Shashank] Manohar [the former BCCI president] and N. Srinivasan before theWorld Cup to discuss a few issues like that of the physios and players' insurance. At the meeting, the players were assured that if any of the contracted players got injured while playing for India, he would get compensation for the money he would thus lose for missing matches for his IPL franchise either in the 2011 IPL or the Champions League T20."

The paper reported that the compensation package for the players totalled Rs 7 crore ($1.26 million).

The board has already insured 37 contracted players for 2012 and pays a premium of approximately Rs 4 crores ($720,000). Tendulkar was not able to take part in CLT20 2011, which his side Mumbai Indians won, due to a toe injury that he sustained during India's tour of England. Zaheer, who was injured during the first day of the Lord's Test in 2011, also missed the tournament while Munaf and Sharma were the other players to pick up injuries from the England tour. Nehra, however, missed the entire IPL2011 season after fracturing his finger during India's semi-final match against Pakistan in the World Cup.