Cricketers to earn more; BCCI doubles salary for Test players

New Delhi: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have indeed increased the salaries for Test players. Such a move was speculated when reports emerged Friday evening that the board president Anurag Thakur himself hinted for a pay hike.

According to reports surfaced on Saturday, Test players will now earn double their match fees — Rs 7 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for those in the playing XI and from Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh for reserves.

"I have always maintained that we need to do more for Test cricket and cricketers both, and this is the first step in that direction," Thakur told TOI.

The move certainly comes as a part of BCCI's initiative to make Test cricket more lucrative and also attractive. (ALSO READ: BCCI ponders on salary hikes for star players)

Besides, the Board has extended the overnight bonanza to its associations by raising the annual subsidy for its full members from Rs 60 to Rs 70 crore, TOI claimed.

The BCCI called for a Special General Meeting (SGM) on Friday, but adjourned to Saturday.

India are currently playing New Zealand in a three-match Test series. The series commenced a long Test season at home, with India hosting England, Australia and Bangladesh after the Kiwi series.

The home season includes 13 Tests, eight ODIs and three T20Is; 13 Tests. And it will equal the record for the highest number of home Tests in a season for India. The 1979-80 season also witnessed 13 matches played in India.

For the record, it is a world record for the number of Tests in a home season.

The report also claimed that the BCCI is expected to take a formal call on the payment of the various pitch curators.

The SGM was however adjourned on technical grounds, thus missing the first deadline to implement the Lodha Committee recommendations. (ALSO READ: Here's why the BCCI's Special General Meeting was adjourned)

Faced with the possibility of losing its entire top brass, including Thakur, the BCCI was to discuss the road ahead at the SGM after the Supreme Court warned the cricket board on Wednesday to either "fall in line" or face the music.

The Board had been given deadline until Friday to implement the first set of reforms, requiring the adoption of a new Memorandum of Association and Rules.

However, the meeting to discuss the matter had to be put off until Saturday after some of the BCCI's member units turned up without the requisite letters of authorisation.