Virat Kohli & Co. receives Champions Trophy prize money, Ravi Shastri pockets 2 Crores

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has presented the details of payments (Rs 25 lakh above) made to cricketers, coaches, state associations and others during the month of October. The Indian cricket team lost to Pakistan in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 final in June in England, and they received Rs 38.67 lakh each as prize money for their good show.

Skipper Virat Kohli and his 14 fellow teammates received the Champions Trophy prize money’s share from the BCCI. Kohli’s men were beaten by their arch rivals by 180 runs at The Oval on June 18. Indian team’s head coach Ravi Shastri and bowling coach Bharat Arun received their salaries. Shastri bagged a payment of Rs 2.02 crore while Arun got Rs 26.99 lakh.

Shastri’s handsome paycheque of Rs 2 crore plus was for a period of three months from October 18, 2017 to January 17, 2018. Former India bowler Lakshmipathy Balaji got a one-time benefit of Rs 50 lakh. All the above-mentioned details were uploaded on Indian cricket board’s website bcci.tv. Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) received Rs 19.44 crore as a share of revenue from this season’s Twenty20 tournament.

Curators demand rise in pay

Meanwhile, the curators had raised their voice for a hike in their payment after the incident involving the Pune curator, who allegedly played a part in fixing and violated several BCCI rules.”I don’t know what exactly happened. It’s a black mark on curators. Most of us spoke about this issue and we were shocked. We have read a lot about people being involved in such things for money. There will be talks on why Salgaonkar did like that and whether it was for money or the lack of it. Curators take a lot of pride in their work and it is high time their salaries are revised,” a top curator, on condition of anonymity, told TOI.

“The BCCI pays its cricketers. But it’s not the same with us. We have raised these issues in a lot of BCCI meetings but nothing has been done thus far. Two decades ago, groundsmen would have at least two months’ break. These days we work right through the year. There’s so much scrutiny on the curators ahead of a match but no one is bothered about their concerns,” another curator said.