Virat Kohli to lead talks with BCCI as Indian cricketers demand pay rise

Virat Kohli is leading a demand from Team India players to raise their salaries. The Indian cricket captain Kohli will lead the talks with former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and current coach Ravi Shastri over the issue. BCCI will hold the talks with players concerning their contracts on Friday.

Players have demanded a greater share of India's growing cricket wealth for them. India's top cricketers saw their annual basic deals doubled to $300,000 this year. The demand for the raise has come after the governing body struck a huge new television deal in September, reported news agency AFP. The BCCI will get $2.5 billion from Rupert Murdoch's Star India channel to show the Indian Premier League from 2018 to 2022.

Player contracts expired on September 30 and salaries are one of the key negotiating points. The report quoted a senior BCCI official as saying, "the players want a raise" and that Kohli will lead the talks with former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and current coach Ravi Shastri. They will meet BCCI administrator Vinod Rai in New Delhi to discuss pay and the packed cricket calendar which Kohli has also criticised."

Rai heads a committee of administrators appointed by India's Supreme Court to run BCCI affairs and reform the world's wealthiest cricket governing body. Rai has backed Kohli's criticism of the scheduling of tours and the issue is expected to be discussed at the meeting. Kohli had hit out at BCCI, ahead of the second Test in Nagpur, for better planning of tours, especially ahead of an important series in South Africa starting in January.