Domestic cricketers struggle

CHENNAI: Elite Indian cricketers are taken care of by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The next tier -- ones who have Indian Premier League (IPL) contracts -- have also been taken care of thanks to the cash-rich tournament. However, the  vast majority of domestic players, the ones who toil in Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali without an IPL contract, have found it tough over the last year or so. The BCCI, the world’s richest cricket board, is yet to work out a compensation scheme for them. 

While the BCCI stated on Monday that the state associations haven’t yet come forward with a proposal on how to distribute the money, the state associations say they are waiting for the BCCI to take up the issue during the special general meeting (SGM) on May 29. “Apart from IPL, discussing domestic cricket is also part of the agenda. We will see what the BCCI does for the first-class cricketers,” a state association official said.   

Due to Covid-19, only the Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy were held last season while the Ranji Trophy was cancelled for the first time in 87 years. While players lamented the delay in providing compensation for Ranji Trophy, their main source of income, many players are yet to receive the payment for the shorter formats too. 

Vidarbha skipper Faiz Fazal urged the BCCI to make the issue of payment to first-class cricketers their main priority now. “Every first-class cricketer who doesn’t play the IPL is finding it frustrating. Payment for the cancelled Ranji season should be a priority (of the BCCI). International cricketers are getting their salaries and players in the IPL will get their money, but what about first-class cricketers? We really depend on this income. We don’t have ads or big contracts to rely on,” Fazal -- who played one ODI for India in 2016 -- told this daily on Tuesday.

In Fazal’s desperation to play some cricket and earn some money, the left-handed batsman has travelled to the United Kingdom to play league cricket in Northern Ireland. Fazal, who has played league cricket in the UK previously, hopes to get his competitive juices flowing before the start of the next domestic season in India.  “I have come to the UK to play cricket as I had become desperate in India. It has been a year-and-a-half since I played proper cricket. I only played Vijay Hazare last season. I am getting a decent contract here since I have played in the UK earlier and it is helping me financially,” he said.  

For Rajasthan left-arm pacer Aniket Choudhary, who lost his grandmother to Covid recently and had all his other family members affected by the virus, the last few months have been harrowing. He did play both the Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s last season, but pointed out that it was the payment from the four-day format that kept their houses running.

“If you play a full season of Ranji, even without qualifying for the knockouts, you get around  `15 lakh. Now that we have not got that, it is hurting. A lot of people are dependent on this money. Even when the amount arrives, it comes 6-8 months late and not at your time of need. It becomes difficult for normal cricketers to survive. If you are not giving the players their salaries on time, especially those who depend on this money, what will we do?” Choudhary argued.

For the time being, those who have government employment to fall back on are relying on that to take them through. Delhi’s Dhruv Shorey, who – at 28 – understands that he is losing some of the prime years of his cricketing career, is employed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for instance and says that his monthly salary has made things slightly better. “The payment for the shorter formats also hasn’t yet come. The RBI employment has made things a little easier, but it is a difficult situation to be in. I am sure BCCI will work something out soon,” Shorey said.