It is well known that cricketers receive huge amounts of money under the contracts they sign with the Indian Premier League (IPL). But the question is, besides these enormous sums of money, what do the players get as their fee for every match played?
So, there are match fees for players from now on, right?
The answer is yes. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has declared that players would get match fees starting from the IPL 2025 season.
Earlier, players weren’t receiving any match fees. Still, the franchises making lots of money the BCCI possibly figured out this way: why not share a little piece of the pie with the players?
What is the amount of match fees that IPL players get paid?
According to the BCCI, a player will earn INR 7.5 lakhs for each game played during the league stage of the IPL. Moreover, this is besides the player’s amount specified in the contract.
Now, the player is allowed to take his whole contract amount together with the match fees. In this manner, some of the players can earn more than their contract amount through the match fees.
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How can that happen?
Let’s say one franchise acquired a player at INR 30 lakh. The player is going to be a part of all 14 matches of the league stage.
His match fee income would be INR 1.05 crore which is, however, three times the amount that he originally had as the contracted one. Hence, this player would end up receiving INR 1.35 crore.
Isn’t that a huge benefit for the players, mainly for those who have base contracts?
In order to illustrate, BCCI gives INR 3 lakhs for a T20I international match at the international level. Compared to this, IPL match fees are more than double. Not even an ODI appearance (INR 6 lakhs) would earn that much for senior Indian cricketers!
Is it applicable to impact players?
Yes. The impact player, or the 12th player on the team sheet, will also get the match fees.
Even a short cameo can fetch INR 7.5 lakh per match. So players have something to look forward to.
But who will bear the expense – BCCI or franchises?
Since players have contracts with the IPL teams, it’s the franchise’s job to pay the match fees. All franchises will keep aside INR 12.60 crore as match fees for the whole season.
The per-match calculation comes down to INR 90 lakh distributed among 12 players. The match fees, though, aren’t part of a franchise’s auction purse.
Were players getting any extra incentives before?
Well, it was subjective to each franchise. They used to reward players based on the team’s performance throughout the season. And it was an optional practice.
The franchises paid the performance-based pay, known as Incremental Performance pay, from their overall auction purse. But now teams have to shell out the match fees irrespective of the team’s performance.
