Just like everyone knows, cricketers manage to get enormous contracts in the Indian Premier League (IPL). But, have you ever contemplated the contribution of players in the form of match fees every game? Are there match fees now?
BCCI issued match fees for players from IPL 2025 season onwards.
That was not the case in earlier years! But with franchises earning from the heavens, BCCI maybe thought to share a little piece with the players.
IPL players Get Through Match Fees?
According to BCCI’s directive, a player can get INR 7.5 lakh per game in the league stage of IPL. Moreover, this is a player’s contracted amount of money.
A player can now take home his full contract amount along with the match fees. This way, some players can earn more than their contract amount because of match fees.
What do you mean, how so?
A team paid INR 30 lakh for a player. The mentioned player is going to play in all 14 league-stage games.
Then his match fee money will be INR 1.05 crore, which is obviously about three times his initial signed amount. Therefore he will end up with a total of INR 1.35 crore.
Isn’t that a huge gain for the players, especially those with the lowest contracts?
To better illustrate, the BCCI pays INR 3 lakh for a T20I appearance at the international level. In comparison, the IPL match fees are more than twice that amount. Even an ODI appearance (INR 6 lakh) cannot be compared to the amount for senior Indian cricketers!
Does it Apply to Impact Players?
Sure. The impact player, or the 12th player on the team sheet, will also receive the match fees.
Even a short appearance can earn INR 7.5 lakh per match. So players have something to look forward to.
The question remains: who will take the financial burden – the BCCI or the franchises?
As the players are contracted with the IPL teams, it falls to the franchise to cover the match fees. For the entire season, all franchises will reserve INR 12.60 crore for match fees.
The per-match fee amounts to INR 90 lakh shared among 12 players. The match fees, however, are not counted in a franchise’s auction purse.
The players Did Get Some Extra incentives Before?
It was a case-by-case basis depending on the individual franchise. They used to give bonuses to players according to their performance in the team throughout the season. But it was optional.
Franchises provided this kind of performance-based pay, called Incremental Performance pay, through their overall auction purse. However, now teams have to pay the match fees no matter how the team performed.
