Reports | India women to be given WT20 prize money this week
The Indian Womenâs side that reached the final of the WT20 in Australia last year will reportedly be awarded the $500,000 they are owed by the BCCI later this week. The development comes on the back of a Telegraph exposĂ©, which revealed that the BCCI hadnât paid the players the WT20 prize money.
The administrators of womenâs cricket in India have found it impossible to dodge controversy and a major exposĂ© from Telegraph Sport, on Sunday, once again showed the incompetence of those running the sport in the country. The Telegraph reported that the BCCI were yet to pay the players the prize money they were owed ($500,000) for reaching the final of the WT20 last year and the revelation has since left the cricketing fraternity shocked. Several former cricketers have condemned the actions of the board and there has been a unanimous call for the need for a Playerâs Association in the country.Â
The BCCI did not officially make a comment on the matter, but a PTI report has now revealed that the board are trying to pay the players by the end of the ongoing week.Â
"The members of the Indian women's cricket team will be getting the share of their prize money by the end of this week. The transactions have been processed and I am expecting that they will receive their share very soon," a senior board functionary told PTI.
The World T20 final was played on March 8 and the BCCI have delayed payments for more than a year, but the said official has defended the boardâs actions, claiming that they received the payment from the ICC very late.Â
âWe received the prize money amount late last year,â the source said.
Meanwhile, according to a former BCCI office-bearer, the delay has nothing to do with gender. The source insisted that all payments have been delayed due to the turmoil caused by the pandemic, and asserted that, generally, there is always a delay that is unavoidable.
"It's not just one payment for women. Whether it's the central contract of the men's team, international match fees, domestic fees of men and women, everything is taking a bit of time because of the prevailing situation," a former BCCI office-bearer, still associated with a state unit, said.
"Even before the COVID situation worsened, the domestic season would end in March and the complete payments were only cleared by September.
"So, in this case you need to check when did BCCI receive the payments. If they received just after the tournament, then it's a delay but processing does take some time. And to the best of my knowledge, it's the same for both men and women."Â