IPL Talk

$30,000 cap for under-19 players

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has fixed an IPL fee of $30,000 for the India Under-19 players who won the ICC World Cup in Kuala Lumpur. The 15 players and the six standbys will be offered on lots for one season to the eight franchisees here on Tuesday.

Clearly, the BCCI and the IPL governing council has taken into account the Rs. 15 lakh cash bonus awarded to the players for winning the Under-19 World Cup in Kuala Lumpur before determining the limit for the juniors.

The decision to impose a cap is in order to prevent agents and coaches from negotiating terms with the players and the franchisees.

Allotment by lots will make it a game of chance for the franchisees and it will be interesting to know which of the teams will win the services of the likes of captain Virat Kohli, Pradeep Sangwan (Delhi), Tanmay Srivastav (Uttar Pradesh), Siddharth Kaul (Punjab) and Iqbal Abdullah (Mumbai), who are likely to be the most sought after. Not all of the players and the standbys will get into any of the eight teams.

Majority of the under-19 players have played in the Ranji Trophy competition, but the BCCI has decided to treat them as a special group.

“The intention is to separate the men from the boys in the first IPL series. It’s fair and I am willing to go along with the BCCI decision. The IPL is going to be a premier league and one has to ascertain their true potential and value in the first year, how they face the pressure when given the opportunity. So it’s fair to limit the fee to $30,000,” said Charu Sharma, CEO of the Royal Challengers, Bangalore, owned by Vijay Mallya’s UB Group.

In the invitation to tender, the IPL had fixed a base fee of $20,000 for those who have not played the Ranji Trophy and $50,000 for those who have.

It is mandatory for each franchisee to choose four under-22 players in the squad. “We have only two, so we will be picking two more from the under-19 lot,” said Sharma.

The franchisees have been told that another player will be added to the list of available players from the World Cup winning squad. “The BCCI cannot pick a single player. So, I have advised them to bring the six standbys (into the lots) so that the franchisees will have the option of picking a batsman or a bowler,” said Mohinder Pandove, Joint Secretary, BCCI.

Source: Hindu