BCCI turns a blind eye to pending payments of more than 400 match officials, umpires and players

As the BCCI is getting ready to host their second IPL season within six months, there are more than 400 match officials, umpires, scorers and video analysts who haven’t received their payments yet for the domestic tournaments in which they featured earlier this season. Apart from them, there are players who feature only in Ranji Trophy for their states and have not received the compensation which they were promised. 

Due to the restrictions of the pandemic, the Indian board decided not to organise the premier first-class tournament this season. The domestic season was shortened and only the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament along with Vijay Hazare Trophy was scheduled. Currently, the senior women’s 50 overs competition is going on. After this, the board might conduct age-group tournaments. 

BCCI had informed all the officials to submit their invoices within three days of the completion of the tournaments. An umpire who officiated during both the limited-overs tournaments said and was quoted by Indian Express, “We usually get the payments within 15 days of completing the assignment. But two months have passed since the Mushtaq Ali tournament finished and we haven’t received any money yet.”

Some Ranji Trophy players have not received payments from BCCI since 2019-20 season: Reports

It has been figured that the delay has happened because the BCCI doesn’t have a general manager (cricket operations) after Saba Karim had quit the role in 2020. KVP Rao, the second general manager who was taking care of the match officials had to step down from the role in December last year. 

There are several of these match officials, who are completely relied upon their payouts from the BCCI while some of them still have side jobs. As a matter of fact, there are some people who haven’t received any payments since the pandemic started in March 2020 and domestic season had to be cut short. 

BCCI in December had revealed that a group of people will be formed to fix the compensation for players, match officials and others involved in cricketing activities. However, three months have passed since then but no information has come. Players who play in only Ranji Trophy have not received payments since the 2019-20 season. Even the Indian Cricketers Association, which has two members in the apex council, has turned a blind eye to the incident.