Ex-cricketers who have severed their links with the rebel ICL, have started to get their monthly gratis payments from the BCCI.

Among the players who have started receving the monthly cheques from the BCCI are Ajit Wadekar, Erapalli Prasanna, Madan Lal, Sandeep Patil, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, Board sources said.

The monthly gratis, introduced by the board initially as a pension scheme to celebrate its Platinum Jubilee, had been stopped to these players when they were associated with the ICL promoted by the Essel Group.

All these ex-cricketers later availed of the BCCI's one-time amnesty scheme to get out of their contracts with the ICL and rejoined the official cricket establishment.