The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced yesterday that the widows of former players would be eligible for the one-time payment from the surplus of Indian Premier League and Champions League T20 revenues.
It is learnt that the BCCI did a rethink on the issue even before the widows submitted a letter addressed to the president N Srinivasan requesting for their case to be considered. The late Dilip Sardesai’s wife Nandini, who spearheaded the exercise, was elated at the Board’s decision. “I am very grateful to the BCCI, also to the cricketers who are playing the IPL. Just like the present-day players owe it to the former ones for building the right platform, we should be grateful to the current crop,” Nandini told MiD DAY last night.
Trip to IPL final
The wives of the late Eknath Solkar, Ashok Mankad, Ramakant Desai and Kripal Singh will be presented with cheques before the IPL final in Chennai on Sunday.
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“The Playoff matches of the DLF IPL 2012 will witness a tribute by the BCCI to its greats, the likes of which has no parallels in history. The surplus revenue to BCCI from IPL and CLT20 will be utilised to make a one-time payment to international and first-class cricketers who retired before 2004, in recognition of their services to Indian Cricket. A total of 70 crores will be distributed among these stalwarts,” the BCCI said in a statement.
The Board has invited a select group of players (“it is practically difficult to invite all the beneficiaries for the matches and hence, the others will be sent their cheques,” the statement added).
Farokh Engineer (Manchester) and Prakash Bhandhari (Singapore) will fly in while the BCCI was willing to bear all costs for California-based Syed Abid Ali’s trip. However, the former all-rounder has expressed his inability to make it. He falls in the Rs 60 lakh bracket.
Madhav Mantri (90), India’s oldest living Test cricketer will be in Chennai to receive his reward. Mantri’s nephew — batting legend Sunil Gavaskar will be honoured before the IPL final alongwith other former captains like Ravi Shastri, S Venkataraghavan and Bishan Singh Bedi.
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