Salary doubled for umpires and curators

The Committee of Administrators in charge of BCCI gave green light to a 100 per cent hike in match fees and daily allowance for curators, umpires, match referees, scorers and video analysts.

Umpires Richard Kettleborough and Sundaram Ravi | File | AFP

CHENNAI: The Committee of Administrators in charge of BCCI gave green light to a 100 per cent hike in match fees and daily allowance for curators, umpires, match referees, scorers and video analysts for the first time in six years. The CoA has also taken view of the selectors not receiving a raise in recent years and sought a proposal on this. As per the new hike, the top 20 umpires who are in charge of senior men’s tournaments will now receive Rs 40,000 per day for non-T20 matches, which is a 100 per cent rise from their previous package. They would also receive Rs 20,000 for T20 matches.

The rest of the umpires (85) who officiate in junior and women’s cricket will receive Rs 30,000 per day as match fee. As per the minutes of a meeting held in Mumbai on April 12, which are accessed by Express, the CoA has also decided to extend the contracts of National Cricket Academy coaches WV Raman and Narendra Hirwani by three months and advised the BCCI to conduct a process to seek fresh applications for posts where contracts are expiring. Raman and Hirwani will be automatic entrants.

Among other notable things, the CoA has decided to increase the fees of curators. The five zonal curators and assistant curators, who were drawing Rs 6 lakh and Rs 4.2 lakh per annum, will get double the amounts from the upcoming season. The CoA has also noted that the number of curators are very low considering the number of venues and matches per a season and directed the BCCI to increase this number. The CoA has decided not to appoint a General Manager (marketing, communication and digital) after the plan drew criticism from BCCI officials.

The CoA had picked Priya Gupta as the potential candidate, but BCCI secretary Amitabh Choudhary in a strongly-worded mail objected to her appointment citing an article written by her on actor Deepika Padukone. Meanwhile, Karnataka, Bengal, Mumbai, Chhatisgarh and Punjab cricket associations were rewarded for preparing the best pitches during the 2017- 18 season. They will receive Rs 10 lakh each. The CoA has also sought a discussion with state associations over player and coach exchange programme between the BCCI and England Cricket Board and explored the option of allowing foreign players aged between 19-23 to participate in Duleep Trophy.

OTHER DECISIONS

•  Plan to employ GM (marketing) scrapped
• Placement agency Randstad India Pvt Ltd hired to appoint Inventory manager, NCA
• Head coach of India, India A & U-19 teams can’t do commentary in IPL
• CoA to consider if SC should be requested to review conflict of interest provisions
• Proposal to increase remuneration for national selectors to be discussed
• Curators in five venues who helped prepare the best pitches too to be rewarded

venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com