For eight years, domestic umpires, the backbone of Indian cricket, have been expecting a pay raise even as inflation has diminished people’s purchasing power.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), however, hasn’t yet included the issue of umpire fee in its agenda for the Annual General Meeting, to be held on September 18. The issue could only be raised if BCCI president Mithun Manhas allows it to be taken up.
The fee for India’s domestic umpires was last raised in April 2018 by the Committee of Administrators (CoA) – an ad hoc body the Supreme Court had appointed to administer BCCI. The fee was doubled, keeping in tandem with the fee hikes for other match officials and curators, — and their assistants — a decision that “pleasantly surprised” all the umpires. The umpires had to wait six years for the 2018 hike. That six-year gap has now been surpassed.
When fees doubled
For the top 20 umpires, the per-day fee was raised from Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000. For the rest, the fee increased from Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000. For T20 matches, the per-day fee was increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000. Their daily allowance was also doubled: Rs 750 to Rs 1,500 for officiating in outstation matches, and from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 for local officials.
Vinod Rai, who served as the CoA chairman from 2017 to 2019 before an elected BCCI body took over in October, was in disbelief after being informed about the umpires’ situation. “Oh my God. That is unbelievable. This is very strange; I don’t know why [umpires have been denied a raise],” he told Patriot.
The pay-setting process
For the BCCI to give umpires a hike, the recommendation for it has to come from its Umpires’ Committee, comprising retired international umpires. The BCCI General Manager (Operations) recommends the increment for all other match officials and curators. Rai says the Umpires’ Committee had no “relevance” to the increment and that it was the job of the BCCI’s HR department.
“I’d say that once the technical competence of an umpire has been established and their categorisation has been done in those five categories [Grade A-Plus, A, B, C, and D, totalling 180 umpires] — which is the job of maybe the Umpires’ Committee — then the compensation package is a pure HR issue. And the umpires have to be benchmarked with other professionals who fall in the equivalent categories, something that the Umpires’ Committee will not know,” Rai, a former CAG, said.
Some people defend the procedure as a “tradition” while others share Rai’s view.
The present BCCI Umpires’ Committee is headed by Amit Saheba and also comprises Shavir Tarapore and Sanjay Hazare. They have been barred from speaking to the media.
What the committee does
K Hari Haran, another retired international umpire and a member of the committee until last year, explained the panel’s role.
“It implements rule changes in domestic cricket as the BCCI controls and runs the game. The committee watches match videos and makes assessments. Umpires’ assessments are used for selecting, grading, demoting, promoting etc. of umpires (sic). We also recommend umpires’ salary hike and names for life pension for those who have officiated in Test matches,” he said.
Also Read: DDCA faces unusual hurdles in appointment of coaches, selectors
According to sources, last year the Umpires’ Committee recommended a hike for domestic umpires, but the BCCI sent it back to the panel, asking it to make some changes in the proposal. At the BCCI umpires’ workshop this June, the committee assured umpires, when pressed, that it would again send a recommendation for an increment. It is not known whether the recommendation was eventually sent or if the BCCI took any action on the issue.
Eight years and counting
In October 2019, Sourav Ganguly became President and Jay Shah Secretary. In December 2024, Shah was elected chairman of the ICC and consequently had to vacate his post in the BCCI.
“When Jay Shah was going to the ICC, we all thought that he would leave by giving a raise to the umpires so that he would be remembered for this gesture,” said a senior umpire.
Nothing of that sort happened. And so the umpires wait for another BCCI AGM, hoping this time will be different.
