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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) faced severe backlash for holding the prize money of India women's national cricket team. Notably, the team ended up as the runners-up at the T20 World Cup in 2020 following which they won the prize money of $500,000. As per the protocol, the prize money was firstly given to BCCI from ICC in order to distribute it among players within two weeks of receiving it from the the body. However, media reports emerging in May this year had stated that the money had not been allocated to the players.
The reports saw BCCI fetching harsh criticism as it was already under scrutiny for its handling of women’s cricket. However, a latest report claims that the apex cricket governing body of India has now paid the women cricketers the prize money from the ICC T20 World Cup which took place in March 2020. The latest report also adds that BCCI has also paid India women their match fees for the series against South Africa that took place in March this year.
The BCCI had asked all the players to send an invoice and their payment was cleared within two days of receiving the details, according to a report carried by TOI.
BCCI claimed of receiving the prize money late
The cricket governing body of India had issued a statement in May clarifying that all the players would get their shares in the next week.
“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 had said as quoted by Times of India.
He further went on to mention that they received the prize money amount late last year from the ICC. Besides, all the payments, be it the annual contracts, domestic fees, etc., are taking longer than usual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he had added.