BCCI rewards Beijing Olympics heroes

The Cricket Board today decided to reward shooter Abhinav Bindra, the country's first-ever individual gold medallist in Olympic Games, and bronze medal winners -- grappler Sushil Kumar and pugilist Vijender Kumar -- with cash prizes totalling Rs 45 lakh.

Bindra, who won the 10-metre air rifle gold on August 11 to provide the medal-starved nation its first yellow metal in 108 years of the modern Games, would be given Rs 25 lakh while wrestler Sushil Kumar (bronze in 66 kg freestyle) and boxer Vijender Kumar (bronze in 75 kg class) would get Rs 10 lakh each.

The decision to reward the Indian Olympics medallists in the Beijing Games, which is set to close tomorrow, was taken at the BCCI's Working Committee meeting here chaired by its president Sharad Pawar.

The all-powerful Working Committee also decided that the cash-rich Board, which has set up a National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) with a corpus of Rs 50 crore, will double its contribution to the Fund from Rs 25 crore to Rs 50 crore for the next three years.

Among other important decisions taken at the one-day sitting was the amount of remuneration for the members of the men's senior and junior selection committees as well as the women's selection committee.

The men's senior selectors would get an honorarium of Rs 25 lakh per annum, the junior selectors Rs 15 lakh and the women selectors Rs 5 lakh.