BCCI accepts Rahul Dravid's cash award parity demand for India's U-19 support staff

Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has accepted India Under-19 head coach Rahul Dravid’s decision for parity in cash prizes towards the support staff of the ICC U-19 World Cup 2018 winning team.

Dravid, the head coach had previously put forward his reservations after national cricket board announced cash prizes of Rs 50, 30 and 20 lakhs for Dravid, the players and the support staff respectively. Unhappy with BCCI over the decision, the former India skipper later demanded all the members be paid equally having stressed the importance of no discrimination in cash rewards.  

However, according to The Indian Express, Dravid took a 50 per cent pay cut in order to ensure the whole support staff gets paid an equal sum of Rs 25 lakhs, which has also assisted the family of trainer Rajesh Savant who passed away during a tour with the team last year.

BCCI has also extended the felicitation list by including members of the support staff who were a part of the team’s year-long preparation ahead of the ICC U-19 2018 World Cup in New Zealand.

Earlier in February, Dravid had a meeting with BCCI chief executive officer Rahul Johri in Mumbai where he put forward his decision of ensuring parity in cash awards. The Indian batting icon even mentioned about rewarding those members who weren’t on tour with Prithvi Shaw and co, but trained with the team earlier.

“From the time the award was announced, Dravid wasn’t happy with him getting much more than others. He informed the Board that he felt that every member had played an equal role in the team winning the World Cup. It surprised many in the BCCI that he was ready to take a cut in his own earning,” a board member said.

Here is the revised list of the cash prizes, with all members of the support staff receiving Rs 25 lakh each:

Bowling coach Paras Mhambrey
Fielding coach Abhay Sharma
Physiotherapist Yogesh Parmar
Trainer Anand Date
Masseur Mangesh Gaikwad
Video analyst Devraj Raut

Additions:

W V Raman (Coach during the tour of England in 2017)
Logistics managers Manuj Sharma, Sumeet Malahapurkar
Trainer Amogh Pandit
Late trainer Rajesh Savant