BCCI’s plan to implement pay hike for domestic cricketers put on hold due to heavy taxation

BCCI’s plan to give Indian domestic cricketers a substantial pay-hike has been obstructed because of the huge amount of tax that the board is paying at the moment.

Sourav Ganguly, after taking over as the BCCI president, had made it very clear that he would put a central contract system in place for domestic cricketers which would give them financial security. As per his new plan, the earnings of the cricketers wouldn’t necessarily depend on their selection in their state sides.

But the president’s idea can’t be implemented for the time being, because of the taxation issue.

“The board has to revise its financial structure. Under CoA, everything that was done is now drawing heavy taxes. The BCCI has had to pay a lot of tax. Once that is sorted, the domestic pay hike will be rolled out. There is also some work going on to enable the hike without eating too much into GRS,” a top BCCI official was quoted as saying by Times of India.

The Committee of Administrators (CoA), which was in charge of BCCI's affairs before the new hierarchy took shape, had also given the domestic cricketers a pay-hike. But the CoA simply increased the wages of the domestic cricketers from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 35,000 per day, rather than adopting a central contract system.

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The CoA had also decided that a fraction of the Gross Revenue Share (GRS) of the board would be given to the domestic cricketers. However, both the decisions resulted in heavy taxation being imposed on the board.

It is understood that the new hierarchy, under Ganguly, is likely to reverse the decisions of the CoA and put a completely different structure in place.