Almost four months after the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) annual general meeting in principle approved a proposal to financially compensate various stakeholders affected by a curtailed season, the domestic cricket community is hoping that Friday’s apex council meeting will witness a discussion on the issue.
The 14-point agenda, accessed by The Hindu, has listed “discussion on domestic season 2021-22”, but has no mention of the compensation package.
“Two IPLs have happened along with three limited-overs tournaments in the last six months, but a majority of the domestic cricket circuit is in limbo. We just don’t know whether all of us — the men and women cricketers, senior and junior, along with match officials and scorers — are going to be compensated at all,” a domestic stalwart, not a part of the IPL any longer, told The Hindu on condition of anonymity.
On December 24 last year, the BCCI AGM had “authorised the office-bearers 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”.
There has been no word since then to thousands of individuals who have been affected. BCCI secretary Jay Shah, treasurer Arun Dhumal and chief executive officer Hemang Amin didn’t respond to queries on the issue.
Olympic discussion
In addition to appointing support staff and discussing the calendar for the national women’s team, the agenda lists “discussion on BCCI’s stand on including cricket in 2028 Olympics” and an “update on T20 World Cup”.
