Former cricketers to get benefit payment at IPL play-offs

Sixty-five former cricketers, including the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, have been invited by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for the IPL play-offs, during which they will be handed cheques as a part of the Board's one-time benefit payment.

The BCCI recently announced that around 160 domestic and international cricketers who retired before 2003-04 would be awarded a cash bonanza as part of its one-time benefit scheme from the IPL surplus money. The gesture will cost the Board Rs 70 crore.

The BCCI, in a statement, said it is not possible to invite all the beneficiaries and those not invited would be sent cheques. Widows of four former cricketers have also been invited to collect cheques in Chennai on May 27, the day of the final.

"Some of the beneficiaries have been invited to the DLF IPL 2012 Play-off venues. They will be presented their respective cheques before the start of the play-off matches. It is practically difficult to invite all the beneficiaries for the matches and, hence, the others will be sent their cheques," BCCI president N Srinivasan was quoted as saying.

Under the BCCI's scheme, cricketers who have played more than 100 Test matches will get Rs 1.5 crore while those who played between 75 and 99 Tests will receive Rs one crore.

Those who have played between 50 and 74 Tests will get Rs 75 lakh while those between 25 and 49 Tests will receive Rs 60 lakh.

Cricketers who have played between 10 and 24 Tests will be handed Rs 50 lakh while those between one and nine Test matches and who have played their last international match before 1970 will get Rs 35 lakh.

Cricketers who have played 100 and more first class matches will get Rs 30 lakh while those who have played between 75 and 99 matches will receive Rs 25 lakh.

The One-dayers played by the cricketers will be added with three ODIs being counted as one Test match. But, for this, the cricketer will have to play at least one Test.

Schedule of presentation of cheques to former cricketers:

At the final in Chennai on May 27: Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, S Venkataraghavan, Javagal Srinath, N S Sidhu, BS Chandrasekar, BS Bedi, FM Engineer, Shivlal Yadav, Abbas Ali Baig, Madhav Mantri, A G Milkha Singh, Rajinder Goel, Amarjeet Kaypee, S Hyder Ali, K Bhaskar Pillai, G Inderdev, M P Pandove, V Sivaramakrishnan.

At the second qualifier in Chennai on May 25: K Srikkanth, Madan Lal, Robin Singh, Chetan Chauhan, Salim Durani, L Sivaramakrishnan, WV Raman, Abey Kuruvilla, Chandrakant Pandit, V V Kumar, P  Bhandhari, Kailash Gattani, L S Rajput, D Vasu, V B Chandrasekar, Sambaran Bannerjee.

At the eliminator in Bangalore on May 23: Venkatesh Prasad, Roger Binny, Yashpal Sharma, E A S Prasanna, Rajesh Chauhan, Arun Lal, S Vishwanath, B S Sandhu, U N Kulkarni, Kawaljit Singh, Sudhakar Rao, MV Sridhar, Daljit Singh, Sanjeev Sharma, P Mhambrey.

At the first Qualifier in Pune on May 22: Chandu Borde, Sanjay Manjrekar, Nari Contractor, Ajit Wadekar, Anshuman Gaekwad, Bapu Nadkarni, Arshad Ayub, Madhav Apte, M R Rege, Srikanth Kalyani, P Shivalkar, T Arothe, Surendra Bhave, SS Sugvekar, Venkat Sundaram.

Widows of former cricketers: Mrs Nirupama Mankad, Mrs Eknath Solkar, Mrs Ramakant Desai, Mrs Kripal Singh.