The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at its 9th Apex Council Meeting on Monday (September 20, 2021) via video conference decided to increase the match fees for domestic players along with compensation for the 2020-21 season.
Players who participated in the 2019-20 domestic season will get a 50 percent additional match fee as compensation for the 2020-21 season, which was impacted in the 2020-2021 seasons due to Covid-19.
The additional match fees will also compensate for the reduced number of matches. Till 2019-20, the last Ranji season, each team was assured of at least eight First-Class games. With the revised structure, the number of league games has come down to five.
BCCI have increased the match fee significantly for the domestic players. Until now, senior men domestic players used to earn Rs 35,000 per match-day for the Ranji Trophy or Vijay Hazare Trophy, while now get Rs 60,000 per match (played more than 40 matches), Rs 50,000 per match (played more than 21-40 matches) and Rs 40,000 per match (played up to 20 matches).
The under-25 players who start a match will now get a remuneration of Rs 25,000 per day instead of the current Rs 17,500 while the reserves will get Rs 12,500 per day instead of Rs 8,750. The board has also increased match day fees for under-19 and under-16 players. The under-19 playing players will earn Rs 20,000 per game while reserve players will get Rs 10,000.
The senior women’s team saw their pay getting hiked from Rs 12,500 to Rs 20,000 per player instead of Rs 6,250. The under-23, under-19, and under-16 women playing eleven players will get Rs 10,000. While these are the figures for playing members, reserves are paid half.
“The increase of match fee for domestic cricketers is a welcome step and this will move will ensure that professional cricketers can solely focus on playing cricket and are appropriately rewarded. Domestic cricket is our backbone and we will make every effort to keep it strong and healthy so that our bench strength always remains superior,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah.
“If a player features in just one match of a Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament in a season but if that turns out to be the 21st match of his career, then he will automatically move to the next pay slab,” BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal said.
“It’ll be similar with Ranji Trophy and Vijay Hazare tournament. The idea was to help cricketers earn more money and the longer they play, the better the remuneration they will get,” he added.
BCCI also decided that the decision on hosting the under-16 tournament will be taken after the under-19 tournament concludes, based on the Covid-19 situation in the country.
