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The Indian board doubles match fee for senior and junior domestic tournaments; umpires committee scraps grouping system as no decision reached on increasing match fee for match officials
Written by Devendra Pandey Mumbai | December 22, 2025 10:39 PM IST
3 min read
The BCCIs' Apex Council met on Monday evening to decide on the pay hike for the players and the umpires. And at the end of the meeting it was unanimously decided to increase the match fee for all women's cricketers. (File)
The Apex Council of the Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided to double women players’ match fees in domestic cricket. Going forward, the BCCI has decided to have a uniform structure with those featuring in the starting XI will get Rs 50,000 per day, while those in the bench will get Rs 25,000 per day. Similarly, at the age group levels, players who are part of the XI will get Rs 25,000 per day and the rest will earn Rs 12,500 per day.
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The BCCIs’ Apex Council met on Monday evening to decide on the pay hike for the players and the umpires. And at the end of the meeting it was unanimously decided to increase the match fee for all women’s cricketers. Until now, the Indian board used to pay Rs 20,000 per day for senior women’s tournaments with the reserves getting Rs 10,000. The junior cricketers will be taking home Rs 10,000 (in the XI) and Rs 5,000 if you are part of the bench. It meant, women cricketers used to earn a mere Rs 2 lakh per season provided they played all the league matches in the senior tournaments. Now, it has been doubled. For domestic T20 players will get a fee of Rs 25,000 for making the playing eleven while those in bench will get Rs 12,500.
After India won the ICC 50-over World Cup, a significant change in the pay structure was expected, particularly at the domestic level. In 2022, the BCCI had announced that the female cricketers would get the same match fee as the men’s team. Anyone who plays Test cricket gets Rs 15 lakh per match, while those who play ODIs and T20Is will take home Rs 6 and Rs 3 lakh respectively.
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Even at the ICC World Cup which India won, the prize money for the tournament was $13.88 million compared to the $10 million pool for the men’s event held in 2023.
Umpires grouping scrapped
The Apex Council is yet to take a decision on increasing umpires match fees. However, the umpires committee which comprises Amish Saheba, Sudhir Asnani and L Hariharan has proposed to scrap the grouping of umpires citing the dip in quality of umpiring in the top grade. The 186 umpires are divided into four groups – A+, A, B and C. It is understood that the committee feels that the system of promotion and demotion is not working because ‘non performing umpires’ in A+ and A is much higher. The committee felt that performances of umpires in Group B and C are much better.
Since payment structure varies as per the grouping, the committee felt it would be unfair for performing umpires to be paid less for the same job than the other umpires. It is understood the Apex Council will take a call on the umpires match fee at another meeting next month.
Having spent years covering Mumbai’s local "maidan" cricket circuit, Devendra Pandey brings a unique ground-level perspective to his reporting. ... Read More
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