The BCCI, it seems, was bracing up its staff for the petrol price hike. Jokes apart, TOI has learnt that the Board, in a long-due move which will be appreciated by many in the cricketing fraternity, has doubled the match fee of its ¡®behind the scenes men¡¯ ¡ª curators and match officials (umpires & match referees), scorers and video analysts.
BCCL
The decision, following a recommendation by former India stumper Saba Karim, who¡¯s now the GM, cricket operations, was taken by the Committee of Administrators (CoA) at its meeting on April 12. As per the minutes of the April 12 meeting, put on the BCCI website, ¡°The CoA was informed that there are five zonal curators and assistant curators each, who¡¯re currently paid a fee of Rs 6 lakh per annum and Rs 4.2 lakh per annum. This fee had been fixed in 2012, and hasn¡¯t been increased since then. He recommended that the fee be doubled to Rs 12 lakh per annum for the five zonal curators and Rs 8.4 lakhs per annum for the five assistant curators.¡±
While the CoA ¡°observed that the number of curators was too few and suggested that the BCCI consider engaging more assistant curators,¡± it ¡°approved the proposed increase in fee for zonal and assistant curators.¡±
Similarly, the match fee of the 105 umpires hired by the BCCI since 2012, which hadn¡¯t increased all this while, has been doubled.
While the top 20 umpires of the country (who officiate in games other than T20 matches) has been doubled from Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000 per day. The fees of the remaining 85 umpires has been doubled too, from Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000. The top 20 umpires will now receive double the amount they received earlier (from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000) for officiating in T20 games, while the remaining umpires will get twice their earlier salary too (Rs 15,000, as compared to Rs 7,500 earlier).
The daily allowance of the umpires too has been doubled from Rs 750 per day to Rs 1500 (in case of outstation umpires), and from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. At a time when they¡¯ve come in for huge criticism for a largely thankless job, this massive, long-due increment is a timely pat in the back of these umpires.
The fee of BCCI¡¯s 58 match referees, who¡¯re all former First-Class players, which too hadn¡¯t increased since 2012, has been doubled from Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000 per day. In case of T20 games, this has been doubled from Rs 7,500 to Rs 15,000 per match. Their daily allowance too has been doubled from Rs 750 to Rs 1500 per day in case of outstation match referees, and Rs 500 to Rs 1000 in case of local.
BCCL
The 153 BCCI scorers will now receive Rs 10,000, instead of Rs 5,000 as earlier. In case of T20 games, they¡¯ll receive Rs 5,000, which is double of what they were getting earlier. Their daily allowance (Rs 1,500 for outstation, and Rs 1,000 for local now) too has been doubled.
The fee of the 185 video analysts of the BCCI, too has been increased. The senior video analysts will receive Rs 15,000 per day ¡ª double of what they got earlier ¡ª while the assistant video analysts will now get Rs 10,000 per day, upwards of the Rs 3,000 per day that they earnt earlier. The fees of senior video analysts for T20 games has been doubled too, from Rs 3,750 to Rs 7,500 per match, while assistant video analysts, who were getting Rs 1,500, will now get Rs 5,000. Their daily allowance too has been increased from Rs 750 to Rs 1500 (outstation) and from Rs 500 to Rs 1000 in case of local video analysts.
BCCI
The CoA also considered an increase in the remuneration of the national selectors. The committee felt that it wasn¡¯t ¡°appropriate¡± to increase the pay of those (selectors) ¡°who¡¯re sitting at home and not rendering any services on account of the directions issued by the Hon¡¯ble Justice Lodha Committee in January 2017.¡± This means that former India players Gagan Khoda and Jatin Paranjpe, who were ineligible to continue as selectors since early last year, won¡¯t receive any increment, which the CoA would decide after going through a proposal for the same. That increment would be effective from October 1 this year.
The CoA, meanwhile, has decided against appointing a person in the position of GM (Marketing, communications & Digital), presumably, after BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary¡¯s letter questioning the appointment and its process.