Huge pay packet awaits domestic cricketers

The Indian board has announced that domestic cricketers' match fees for the financial year ending March 2007 would be in the order of Rs. 25000 per day. While this is being interpreted as a reaction to the exodus of players to the Indian Cricket League, it is merely the routine revision that the BCCI announces at the end of each financial year.

According to the BCCI constitution, 10.5 per cent of the board's gross receipts has to be spent on the payment of wages of domestic cricketers. Accordingly, whenever the board's revenues increase, the wages of domestic cricketers, and international cricketers, increases proportionately. The finance committee of the BCCI met, under the chairmanship of Sudhir Nanavati, in Mumbai to finalise the accounts for the financial year ending March 31, 2007. The committee found that the BCCI had a surplus of Rs 231.64 crore.

This correlated to a per day payment of approximately Rs. 25000 for domestic cricket. Players have already been paid a cash advance of Rs 4000 per day (Rs 16000 per four-day Ranji trophy match) and the remainder would be paid retrospectively. This means that a player now stands to make Rs 1 lakh -plus per domestic match. The board has also recommended that the cash component - paid in advance - be increased to Rs. 10000.

What's more, from this year onwards the payment could go up to Rs 35000 per playing day, if sources close to the finance committee are to be believed. This encompasses senior domestic tournaments like the Ranji Trophy, the Duleep Trophy, the Irani Trophy, the all-star series for the Deodhar Trophy, the Challenger Series for the NKP Salve Trophy and the Premier Cup one-day matches (Ranji one-dayers).

The standard practice of the board is to pay a cash component, as allowance during matches (previously Rs. 4000 per day, set to go up to Rs. 10000 per day) and then pay the remainder retrospectively, at the end of the financial year, once the balance sheet is finalised.

"These are the projected figures and linked to the gross receipts for a year," said Niranjan Shah, secretary of the BCCI. "It's the prerogative of the working committee to make recommendations to AGM."