CHENNAI: Even as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is preparing to roll out a second IPL in six months, more than 400 umpires, match officials, scorers, and video analysts are still awaiting payments for the domestic tournaments they featured this season.
Apart from them, even a few of the domestic players, who feature only in the Ranji Trophy for their respective units, are waiting to hear from the Indian cricket board about the compensation package they were promised.
Citing the pandemic, the BCCI had rolled out a curtailed domestic calendar which began only in January with the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s.
It was followed by the Vijay Hazare Trophy in February and currently, women's one-dayers is underway following which the BCCI is contemplating whether to schedule age-group tournaments or not.
The BCCI had instructed umpires, officials et. al. to submit the bills not more than three days after the completion of the tournament. “We usually get the payments within 15 days of completing the assignment.
"But two months have passed since the Mushtaq Ali tournament finished and we haven't received any money yet,” an umpire who officiated in both the men's events told this daily.
It is understood that the delay has been caused because the BCCI was without a general manager (cricket operations) after Syed Saba Karim quit the position last year.
Even the other general manager, KVP Rao, who was looking after the umpires, match officials among others, was asked to step down from his post last December.
While some of these officials do have a regular job to fall back on, the majority of them who are professionals are completely dependent on the BCCI's pay package.
In fact, some of them have not received payments since last March as all the domestic cricket came to standstill during the pandemic.
The BCCI, during its annual general meeting held in December, had mentioned that a working group will be formed by its office-bearers to decide on the compensation package for the players, match officials and others involved in the cricketing activities.
But more than three months since the AGM, there hasn't been any development on this front. It is not just the match officials, even some of the players who feature only in Ranji Trophy have not received any payment since the 2019/20 season which finished last March. While players from Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Delhi, Bengal, Karnataka, who are employed elsewhere, have managed to make ends meet, the story is different for players in other teams.
Following the grand success of the last edition of the IPL, where the BCCI raked in Rs 4,000 crores, there were talks that 50-70 per cent compensation will be offered, but there hasn't been any communication so far.
Even the Indian Cricketers Association, which has two players representing them in the BCCI's Apex Council, has remained silent on this.
“Once a working group is formed, things will fall in place. But so far there hasn't been any talk on this too,” a state unit official familiar with the developments said.