Cash bonanza for domestic players

While it is being widely assumed that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has raised the prize money of domestic tournaments in reaction to the Indian Cricket League's signing of close to 50 players from India, the decision to revise the domestic purses was taken weeks ago.

When the new faction of the BCCI, under Sharad Pawar, took over two years ago they drew up a vision statement in the first working committee meeting held in Mumbai in December 2005. As part of that vision statement, it was proposed by Inderjit Singh Bindra, former president of the BCCI and currently president of the Punjab Cricket Association, that the prize money for the Ranji Trophy be increased to Rs. 1 crore (US$245,283). While this was accepted in principle, it was not implemented at the time.

Recently, when the principal office bearers of the BCCI met at Pawar's residence in Delhi, approximately a fortnight ago, the issue of revised prize money was debated once more. It was then decided that the prize money should be hiked with immediate effect. At this point another senior official of the board, who did not want to be named, pointed out that this would be unfair on the Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai teams who won the Ranji Trophy in the last two years. He stressed that it was not the fault of the respective teams that the board had failed to implement what it had promised. Pawar was taken up by this logic and was firm that the hike should act retrospectively for the last two years.

What this means is that the board's outlay on payments in prize money for the twenty domestic tournaments now stands at Rs. 12.6 crore (US$3,090,508) for the last two seasons and the forthcoming one. Women's cricket benefits to the tune of 24 lakhs (US$58,867), where in the past the BCCI had paid no prize money for women's cricket.

Below is a list of all the tournaments the BCCI has revised prizemoney for:

Cash bonanza for domestic players

Tournament name	Winners' prize money then	Now		Runners'-up prize money then	Now
Ranji Trophy Super League	7 lakh	50 lakh		3.5 lakh	25 lakh
Ranji Trophy Plate	4	25		2	15
Duleep Trophy	5	30		2.5	15
Irani Trophy	2	10
Challenger Series	5	15		2.5	10
Vijay Hazare Trophy	2	20		1	10
Deodhar Trophy	3	20		1.5	10
CK Nayudu Trophy	1.5	10		0.75	5
Mushtaq Ali Trophy (U-15)	10	5
Cooch Behar Elite	2	5		1	3
Cooch Behar Plate	Nil	5		Nil	3
Vinoo Mankad Trophy (U-19)	1	4		0.75	2
Vijay Merchant Trophy Elite	1.5	4		0.75	2
Vijay Merchant Trophy Plate	Nil	2		Nil	1.5
Poly Umrigar Trophy (U-15)	1.5	3		0.75	1.5