BCCI offers hefty incentives to cricketers

NEW DELHI: The BCCI on Sunday announced hefty performance-based incentives for the country's cricketers, including a bonus of Rs 1.50 crores and Rs 75 lakhs to the teams winning Test and ODI series respectively abroad.

Having abolished the graded contract system under which senior players were paid much more than others, the BCCI has decided that each player will get a fee of Rs 2 lakhs for a Test and Rs 1 lakh for an ODI.

If the team wins a Test match in India, each player will get an incentive of Rs 5 lakhs and reserves half that amount. If they draw a Test in India, each player will be paid Rs 3 lakhs and reserves Rs 1.50 lakhs.

For winning a Test match abroad each player will get a bonus of Rs 6 lakhs with reserves getting half the amount. A Test series win abroad will earn the team an incentive of Rs 1.50 crores to the team.

For ODIs, the incentives include Rs 3 lakhs each for a domestic win for the playing eleven and half the amount for reserves.

For each ODI victory abroad, members of the playing eleven will get Rs 4 lakhs and reserves 2 lakhs each, according to BCCI vice-president and spokesman Rajiv Shukla who said here that these payments had been decided at the Board's Working Committee meeting in Mumbai on Saturday.

An ODI series win on foreign soil will get the team Rs 75 lakhs and an ODI series win in India will mean a bonus of Rs 50 lakhs to the team.

Shukla said that during 2004-05, the players had been paid Rs 25 crores by the Board. The amount had gone up to Rs 30 crores in the following year.