COVID-19 effect: BCCI lays off 11 coaches amid cost-cutting drive

New Delhi: Even as the Indian economy continues to suffer due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the world's richest cricket body, is looking to cut costs by laying off its coaches.

As per reports, the cricketing body has decided to not renew the annual contracts of 11 coaches at its premier National Cricket Academy (NCA). This list includes the names of 5 retired Indian team players: Ramesh Powar, SS Das, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Subroto Banerjee and Sujith Somsundar.

The laid off coaches had been employed on one-year contracts that are set to expire this month, and earning a paycheck ranging from Rs 30-55 lakh.

The coaches were not informed about the "real reasons" for the non-renewal of their respective contracts, and the decision of the BCCI seems to have come as a surprise to most of them.

One of the coaches said that for the past three months, they had been attending webinars and planning activities for after Covid-19. Thus, it came as a shock to them when they were told that their services are no longer needed.

This decision could not have come at a worse time for these coaches, as many state associations have already appointed coaches for their teams.

Besides helping the men's and women's senior teams during camps and rehabilitation programmes, the coaches were involved in training India-A, India U-19 and India U-23 developmental sides.

It is pertinent to mention here that the cricketing activities at the NCA had been suspended after the imposition of the Covid lockdown in March. However, earlier this month, BCCI-contracted players were given the option of training at the academy.

The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators had recruited these coaches to manage the heavy workload at the NCA at Rahul Dravid's behest.

However, the BCCI is not running out of funds. According to the last balance sheet made public by the BCCI, it had cash and bank balance of Rs 5,526 crore, as of March 2018, including Rs 2,992 crore in fixed deposits.

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