BCCI lifts domestic umpire fees to Rs 60,000 a day and adds promotion and relegation

India's domestic umpires move on to a four-grade pay scale for the first time since 2017-18, with an assessment board deciding who is promoted and who is sent down

The BCCI's 95th Annual General Meeting in Mumbai on Friday unanimously approved a revised payment structure for domestic umpires and match referees, together with a reclassification of the grades they are placed in.

Umpires will be paid Rs 60,000, Rs 50,000, Rs 40,000 and Rs 35,000 a day across grades A, B, C and D, replacing a structure that had not been revised for close to a decade.

The new rates take effect from the 2026-27 domestic season, which opens with the Ranji Trophy on October 11.

A scale that had not moved in a decade

Under the outgoing structure, the leading group of domestic umpires earned Rs 40,000 a day for senior tournaments, with the rest of the panel on Rs 30,000 and T20 fixtures paid at Rs 20,000.

Those rates date to 2017-18, and the fees for umpires and match referees have gone without a revision for close to ten years while the domestic calendar has grown around them.

Daily allowances ran from Rs 1,500 for outstation duty down to between Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 for officials appointed locally.

Four grades in place of the old panel

The A+, A, B and C classification has been replaced by four grades running from A to D.

Grades A and B are reserved for officials standing in senior tournaments such as the Ranji Trophy, while grades C and D cover the junior and age-group competitions.

"We have decided to revise the pay structure of domestic umpires and match referees from the 2026-27 domestic season," board secretary Devajit Saikia said.

Merit decides who moves up

An assessment team working under an umpires board will rate officials through the season, with promotions and demotions settled once it ends.

"If they are doing good, (say) 10 umpires will be upgraded to the next level," Saikia said, and officials in the higher grades can be moved down if their ratings do not hold up.

Saikia framed the system as a matter of accountability, pointing to the weight an umpire's decisions carry in a domestic player's progress through the season.

It is the first time the board has tied a domestic umpire's grade, and therefore the fee, to a formal season-long assessment.

Match referees covered, figures withheld

Match referees are included in the same revision and in the reclassification of grades, and the general body approved both together.

The board has not published the referees' new daily fees, and no figure for them was released at the meeting.

Referees work the same senior domestic programme the umpires do, from the Ranji Trophy down through the age-group tournaments.

The rest of the general body's business

Arun Singh Dhumal and M Khairul Jamal Majumdar were elected unopposed as the general body's representatives on the IPL Governing Council.

The meeting adopted the audited accounts for 2025-26, approved the annual budget for 2026-27 and appointed the board's auditors for the year.

An updated Age Verification Policy was adopted, a new internal committee was constituted under the board's Prevention of Sexual Harassment policy, and the board and its state units discussed facilities for differently-abled cricketers.

The general body also resolved to mark the 20th edition of the IPL in 2027 and to run a centenary programme from December 2027 through 2028.

On selection, the office-bearers were authorised to settle the future of chairman Ajit Agarkar, whose term ends on October 4. "The AGM has authorized the office-bearers to take a decision on the chief selector," vice-president Rajeev Shukla said.

The revised fees apply from the start of the 2026-27 domestic season, which begins with the Ranji Trophy on October 11.

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