BCCI official explains reason behind the delay in depositing junior players' prize money

The ‘Jan Dhan’ accounts used by many juniors cricketers were facing issues in receiving their prize money from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The transactions were getting repeatedly cancelled before the board understood the mistake and sorted it.

It has been reported that payments of six juniors were on hold due to this reason. The main issue was that the ‘Jan Dhan’ account has an upper limit of INR 50,000 as far as cash deposits are concerned.

“All the age-group cricketers, who got awards at the BCCI Annual function were supposed to get Rs 1.5 lakh. Now for senior cricketers, the transfer of prize money happened immediately after January 11. But yes, as many as five times, the Rs 1.5 lakh transaction was declined for some of these (junior) players,” said a top-level BCCI official anonymously as quoted by The Times of India.

The official explained that the board had to check with the banks when the transactions were getting cancelled repeatedly. The official revealed that after checking with the banks, they found out that ‘Jan Dhan’ accounts were in use by many junior cricketers. The upper limit of cash deposits is 50,000 in these accounts.

There were reports that even Ranji players haven’t received their payments

“Once the wire transfers were being repeatedly declined, we checked with our bankers. It was learnt that a lot of junior cricketers possessed ‘Jan Dhan’ Accounts, where the upper limit of the deposit is Rs 50,000. That”s the reason the payments got declined,” he added.

After this, the BCCI got in contact with their bank, Bank of Maharashtra, to contact all the banks where the players had their accounts and get the payment issued resolved. After this, all the ‘Jan Dhan’ accounts were converted to saving accounts, where there is no cap on cash deposits.

“Actually, the match fee for junior cricketers is nominal. The U-16s get Rs 10,000 per match (Rs 2500 per day) and U-19s get Rs 40,000 (Rs 10,000 per day). So in normal times, when match fee has been transferred to these accounts, there have not been any problems. Since the amount this time was way more, this issue arose,” the official said.

There were reports that the Ranji players have not received their payments. On this, the BCCI official said that the board only starts clearing the due two months after the season is over.

“It”s been a normal practice for years as far as Ranji Trophy payments are concerned. After the season ends in March (barring IPL which is also a domestic tourney), state associations send their list of players who were in the squad. Then our accounts department verifies the list and raises payment invoice.

In the normal course, one part of the payment (Duleep, Deodhar, Vijay Hazare and Mushtaq Ali) is done before the start of Ranji Trophy and other after the end of the season. Obviously, with our offices shut and employees working from home, clearances are taking some time,” the BCCI official explained.