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BCCI to give away $13M to former Indian test cricketers. posted under: India | All news |
In an unprecedented move, BCCI has approved a payment of $13 million to former cricketers. He amount, totalling to approximately 70 crore Indian rupees, was first announced at the opening ceremony of IPL 5 and was confirmed by the board, following a meeting of the board’s working committee in Chennai on Saturday.
The amount is applicable to players who retired before the 2003-2004 season of Indian cricket and around 160 former Indian cricketers stand to gain from it. Indian cricket, while extremely beneficial for the stars, has been notoriously ignorant of also-rans, mid-sized stars and one-time wonders. The sanctioned amount stands to bring relief to players who have served Indian cricket at the highest level and given their personal best to succeed. According to the ESPNCricinfo website, speaking at the IPL 5 opening ceremony, the BCCI president N Srinivasan said, “I would like to say that from
the proceeds of the play-off games of the IPL, the BCCI will give a one-time benefit to those who have graced Indian cricket - international as well as those who have played domestic cricket for a long time.” He went on to say, “This is a small thank you to those who have done yeoman service to Indian cricket.”
Traditionally, while cricketers from a rich background have been able to afford the demands of the game – gear, shoes, travel - at the domestic level, players hailing from lesser homes have had problems keeping up with it. The stars of course go on to make enough money to last them generations, the others have to survive being out of the limelight, dealing with demons of failure and attempting to maintain a status accredited to an Indian cricket player.
The dissemination of this amount has been split into 7 categories. The people who stand to gain the most (i.e., 1.5 crore Indian rupees each) are those who have played 100 tests at least. The others stand to get between Rs 35 lakhs to a crore, depending on the number of games they have played. Even domestic players who have played 100+ first class games stand to gain 30 lakhs, while those who have played between 75-99 first class games stand to get Rs 25 lakhs each.
It remains to be seen though if players such as Mohd. Azharuddin who was banned to life on match fixing charges would be liable to receive any benefit from this grant. Former Indian legendary player Chandu Borde deemed the announcement as “fantastic” and his team-mate, the great Bapu Nadkarni who was fabled to have had the greatest talent of drying up runs with his sharp bowling skills, said that he has been expecting this for a while now. He said, “It was time we got something like this as expenses have been mounting with the price rise and medical expenses too going up.”
Back in 2004, The BCCI had announced a pension scheme for retired test players and even umpires. According to the PTI, though the amount was small (Rs 5000), it ensured that former players would at least be saved for impoverished living. Now, with the new scheme being announced, it goes to show that the BCCI truly deserves the mantle of being the richest cricket board in the world.
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