From correspondents in Maharashtra, India, 04:30 PM IST

The Indian cricket board has decided to increase its financial contribution for the development of other sports and has also announced cash prizes for the three sportspersons - Abhinav Bindra, Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh - who won medals for the country at the Beijing Olympics.

The working committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that met here Saturday doubled its contribution to the corpus of the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) that has jointly been set up with the sports ministry from Rs.250 million to Rs.500 million for the next three years, a board statement said.

Now the total corpus will be Rs.1 billion, to be funded equally by the ministry and BCCI.

According to a communication received from the sports ministry, Rs.53.4 million has been utilised from the NSDF to support the sportspersons who had been selected for the Beijing Olympics, a BCCI spokesperson said.

Shooter Bindra, who won the country's first individual gold medal, will be given a cash prize of Rs.2.5 million while bronze medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar and boxer Vijender Singh will get Rs.1 million each from BCCI.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)