Less Ranji League games would bring automatic fee-cut

Under the present payment scale, each player taking part in a senior tournaments of the BCCI, receives Rs. 10,000 as a single match day fee, which means a sum of Rs. 40,000 for the four-day league match and Rs. 50,000 for the five-day knock out match.

Currently, the match fee for a Ranji Trophy player is Rs 10,000 per day.

Players would take an eight-day match-fee hit with 28 Ranji Trophy teams to be drawn in four groups from the 2017-18 season.

Until the 2015-16 season, nine teams were drawn in three groups (A, B and C)  and in the last season (2016-17), Chattisgarh, promoted as  full member of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was placed in Group `C’. On Tuesday, the BCCI’s technical committee decided to draw the 28 teams in four groups that reduced the number of matches from eight to six in each of the four groups. Under the present payment scale, each player taking part in a senior tournaments of the BCCI, receives Rs. 10,000 as a single match day fee, which means a sum of  Rs. 40,000 for the four-day league match and Rs. 50,000 for the five-day knock out match. The balance is paid after the BCCI’s audited  accounts are adopted at the Annual General Meeting in the last week of September. The BCCI’s domestic players receive 10.4 percent of  the BCCI’s annual gross income, the juniors 2.6 percent and the senior national team, 13  per cent. Now for the calculation of the 26 per cent earmarked for the senior team and other players (seniors and juniors), a portion of the gross revenue is arrived at after paying off for production costs from the media rights and 70 per cent of the balance to the State associations. The remaining money is added to other incomes of the BCCI (team sponsorship, apparel sponsorship and series sponsorship) to arrive at a gross income heavily pegged down. A domestic player’s match-fee is also determined by the number of home internationals which enables the BCCI to encash from its broadcaster, which is Rs. 43 crore each for a Test match, ODI and Twenty20 . A BCCI official said: "The average has been around Rs. 25,000 per day, but it could be between Rs. 30,000 and Rs.35,000 per day for the 2016-17 season because India played home series against New Zealand, England, Australia and Bangladesh." An eight-day drop in match days could mean a significant loss of  around Rs. 2 lakh. A BCCI official suggested to Vikram Limaye, former member of Committee of Administrators (CoA) that  the State Associations should offer annual contracts to its players. "It should be like the way the BCCI has worked out for the senior team; central contracts and different match fee for three formats. If this practice is followed by the State associations, the players can receive a sum between Rs. 30 lakh and Rs. 40 lakh a season (annual contract from the State association and match fee from the BCCI),’’ said the official.

ACTING BCCI PRESIDENT C. K. KHANNA'S QUOTES TO PTI:

“The domestic players’ pay structure needs to be reviewed. In my opinion, a minimum 50 per cent increase is a must. I have had discussions with our treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhary and he is working out the modalities.” “I believe that our team can put up a nice proposal before the general body, which is the forum which can clear policy decisions." “I don’t think state units should be burdened with pay hike of domestic players. There is a school of thought that extra financial outflow can be arranged from the additional income that IPL broadcast rights will generate." “The umpires, scorers, video analysts all had their fees last revised in 2012. They have been getting the same match fee for the past five seasons. The BCCI is also working on giving them appropriate hikes."