Disability cricket body requests BCCI to transfer money soon

The BCCI had awarded a cheque of Rs 65 lakh to India's differently-abled team for winning the World Series but the players are yet to receive the amount.

Vikrant Keni and Gurdas Raut had collected the cheque from Sourav Ganguly and Jay Shah on March 4.

 

Two months ago, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah awarded a cheque of Rs 65 lakh to India’s differently-abled team for winning the World Series in England last year.

But the players claim that they are yet to receive the amount.

At a time when all the cricketing activities have come to a halt due to the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the players are struggling to make ends meet. This has forced Ravi Chauhan, Secretary, All-India Cricket Association for Physically Challenged, to write to the BCCI chief requesting him to transfer the money directly to the players’ accounts.

In his letter — a copy of which is with Sportstar — Chauhan has written: “This is with regards to the prize money for the Indian Divyang Cricket Team winners of the first-ever Physical Disability World Cricket Series England, August 2019.

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We are grateful to the BCCI for honouring our winning team members with Rs 65 lakh,” Chauhan wrote in his email, which has been marked to the BCCI office-bearers and also to CEO Rahul Johri and GM of Cricket Operations Saba Karim.

“We wanted to request you to transfer the players' prize money as soon as possible. It will be very useful to them in this lockdown as most of them have no source of regular earning. Hope you will give directions in this regard and request to please ensure this is done with in quickest time please,” Chauhan wrote.

On March 4, the BCCI office bearers invited captain Vikrant Keni and his team-mate Gurudas Raut at the board’s headquarters to hand over the cheque. However, with the countrywide lockdown, BCCI office has been shut since mid-March. “These are times of crisis and most of the players are sitting at home. They are all asking me when do they get the money, and I don’t have an answer. I am sure Mr Ganguly will look into the matter at the earliest,” Chauhan told this publication.

When contacted, one of the senior board officials said that the money has already been released by the BCCI and the players should receive it in a day or two. “Maybe, there are some issues due to the lockdown. But it should be done in a day or two,” he said.

The Indian team had defeated England by 36 runs to win the T20 Physical Disability World Cricket Series last year. Following its win, the Committee of Administrators — which was running the cricketing affairs then — had sanctioned a monetary reward for the team.