BCCI will pay full match fees only to playing members of Syed Mushtaq Ali T20

Sourav Ganguly. Pic/AFP

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to pay match fees to only playing members of teams which participated in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.

Non-playing members will receive half the amount the playing members will get. With domestic cricket being conducted in a strict bio-secure bubble, the BCCI allowed each team to have 22 players in their squad. However, only 15 players were allowed to be at the ground.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah's email to state associations (a copy of which is with mid-day) said: "It may be noted that the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021 was played under bio-secured bubble restrictions and hence the BCCI had permitted all the state cricket associations to increase the squad limit to 22 players.

"The BCCI will be paying match fee to all the 22 players i.e 11 players will be paid Rs 17,500 as ‘Playing Fee' and balance 11 players will be paid Rs 8,750 as ‘Non-playing fees.'"

Last month, the BCCI had hiked hosting fee of six state associations which conducted the T20 tournament in a bubble, from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh. Hiking the match fees of domestic cricketers has been one of the most ambitious plans of BCCI president Sourav Ganguly. However, it has not yet been formulated considering the challenges the former India captain faces to conduct cricketing activities in these unprecedented COVID-19 times.

At the 89th Annual General Meeting of the BCCI held on December 24, it was decided, "to form a working group in order to compensate the players, match officials and others involved in cricketing activity if they are not able to participate due to cancellation of cricket matches/tournaments owing to COVID-19."