Around 160 domestic and international cricketers who have retired before 2003-04 will be awarded cash bonanza as part of the BCCI’s one-time benefit scheme from the IPL surplus money, a gesture which would cost the Board a whopping Rs 70 crores.
“From the surplus of IPL, BCCI will make a one-time benefit payment to cricketers who have retired before 2003-04 in recognition of their services to Indian Cricket, in both International and Domestic levels,” the Board said in a release after the Working Committee meeting at Chennai.
“Around 160 cricketers are eligible for this payment. The total payment is approximately Rs 70 crores,” it said. Cricketers who have played more than 100 Test matches will get Rs 1.5 Crore while those who have played between 75 and 99 Tests will receive Rs one crore.
Those who have played between 50 and 74 Tests will get Rs 75 lakhs while those between 25 and 49 Tests will receive Rs 60 lakhs. Cricketers who have played between 10 and 24 Tests will be handed Rs 50 lakhs while those between one and nine Test matches and who have played their last international match before 1970 will get Rs 35 lakhs.
Cricketers who have played 100 and more first class matches will get Rs 30 lakhs while those who have played between 75 and 99 matches will receive Rs 25 lakhs. The one-dayers played by the cricketers will be added with three ODIs being counted as one Test match. But for this, the cricketer will have to play at least one Test. “Three ODIs would be calculated as one Test match,” BCCI President N Srinivasan told reporters after the Working Committee Meeting.
“Good Lord, it’s fantastic,” was the reaction from former Test middle order mainstay Chandu Borde who led India in one Test when regular skipper Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi was injured and unavailable to play on the 1967-68 tour of Australia.