Domestic cricketers left in lurch with no pay

Adisturbing news report caught one’s eye as another week ended without any closure as far as important international and Indian domestic cricket is concerned.

The item focused on a sorry situation faced by domestic cricketers in India who are still waiting for their match fees of the 2019-20 season. Players of many domestic sides that had played in the Ranji Trophy (the national championship of cricket in the country) and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 (T20) tournament are left high and dry.

What must be making it worse is the current scenario of the forced lockdown thanks to the outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus that is devastating the nation.

Players, and there are many in the country, rely purely on participating in domestic tournaments to keep their home fires burning and a delay in getting money that is due to them has put them in a quandary.

The amount that a cricketer receives playing matches for his state are better than what he would have got through full time employment. For each Ranji Trophy match, a player gets a fee of `35,000 per day and `17,500 for match in the Mustaq Ali T20 tournament. The delay on the part of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the state associations in getting the money across to the players reeks of apathy on their part.

The situation, today, is far different from what it was in the past when cricketers were on the full time rolls of corporates and public sector utilities (PSUs) who promoted sports in national interest. Reputed private companies hired cricketers, among other sportspersons, to promote their interests and as a public relations strategy to enhance their reputation.

Nationalised banks and enterprises in the government and public sector also gave full employment to deserving sports candidates making them the modern day Maharajas who had done similar in the post independence era.

The scenario then was if a sportsperson showed talent at a university level, he/she was assured of a job which gave them the much needed income and the freedom to work hard and excel in their sport.

From a cricketing perspective, almost all players were working in top private organisations, banks or public sector utillities, till the early 90s when the sport took its first step towards commercialisation and cricketers made enough money, just playing the game as professionals, to last them a lifetime.

Old timers may remember the teams that represented all-India State Bank of India in the 70s and early 80s, comprising of legends including former India captains — Ajit Wadekar, Bishen Singh Bedi, Gundappa Viswanath till Mohammed Azharuddin.

The same was matched by companies in the four metro cities of the country — the teams wearing the company’s colours while playing in domestic allIndian tournaments like the Moin-ud-Dowla Gold Cup in Hyderabad, the Buchi Babu in Chennai among others.

The assurance of jobs and secured income ended at the start of the era of 2000s when cricket became a magnet attracting television companies which started to pour in loads of cash to be associated with the game in a cricket crazy country.

The advent of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008 took the game to another level with bigger bucks, almost to a level of insanity, unimaginable by those who followed the game in the pre-IPL era.

Today, an international Indian cricketer can make loads of money to last more than his generation if he plays in a ten-year time band.

Those not fortunate to wear the national colours can make a mini fortune playing the Indian Premier League while the players playing for their states are assured of enough income to keep them going, while concentrating on the game.

The last lot is also assured of a steady flow of cash thanks to the various T20 tournaments that are held at the state level along with those who don’t make the cut at the national and state level.

In today’s day, most private corporates and public sector utilities (PSUs), who have been supporting the game, hire players on a contractual basis with full time jobs drying up.

The only way for noninternational players to survive (without regular jobs) is playing for their states and in the many T20 leagues that have mushroomed over the country.

Domestic cricket is the grassroots of the game in India — the foundation on which the game survives.

The delay in payments to these cricketers, relying totally on the sport for survival, is a big issue the BCCI needs to sort out with immediacy.

They need to realise that the grass cannot grow if the roots are not nourished in time.