ICA prepares budget of INR 15 to 20 crore to run its affairs

The Indian Cricketers’ Association (ICA) has prepared a tentative annual budget of Rs 15-20 crore to run its affairs as it met for the first time here on Wednesday. ICA is India’s first ever players’ association formed as per recommendation of the Supreme Court-appointed Justice RM Lodha panel. “The tentative budget prepared by our treasurer is around Rs 15-20 crores annually. That will include expenses for an office space in Mumbai, three to four permanent employees to maintain the office and the travel and daily allowances of the officer bearers,” a BCCI official told PTI. 

Though ICA will be receiving a partial grant from the BCCI, the players’ body will have to raise money on its own. How they will go about that will be discussed in the next meeting on November 1. “We can only raise our issues with the BCCI through our apex council representatives once the board is formed on October 23,” said the official. 

Anshuman Gaekad will be ICA’s male representative to the BCCI apex council and Shantha Rangaswamy will be the female representative. The office-bearers, led by president Ashok Malhotra, also filled majority of the vacancies for ICC representatives in the state associations at the meeting. 

For example, the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) had nominated Kiran Powar as the male ICA representative to apex body but had left vacant the name of the women’s representative. Maharashtra had nominated the female representative’s name but there was no name for the male representative. “We filled about 24 vacancies. We need to fill about 12-14 more,” added the official.