MUMBAI: Even as the COVID-19 pandemic has created a huge financial stress across the board, world cricket’s richest governing body – the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) – has reportedly chosen two yardsticks in how it treats the game’s superstars versus its journeymen cricketers.
BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal has confirmed that the board’s centrally contracted international cricketers will suffer salary cuts only as a “last resort” as a consequence of the crisis. “That would be the last thing that we would want to do at our end. That is why we are working (on) how much is the loss finally we have to pay. So once we are able to assess that then we might consider it, but it will be the last thing on our agenda,” Dhumal told India Today on Tuesday.
However, such munificence on the board’s part has clearly not “trickled down” to the lower rungs where it’s really needed. According to a report by the Indian Express, around 950 domestic cricketers are waiting for their share of arrears from Indian cricket’s annual earnings. The report further highlights that there were several other cricketers who had not yet received their match fees from last (emphasis ours) season.
The plight has not limited itself to the cricketers only as the umpires and match officials are undergoing a similar fate. Reportedly, the officials have not been paid their dues from matches played in January, February and March.
The reason given, in this case, has been the hardship caused by the nationwide lockdown. But the board has failed to explain why the dues before the lockdown period were not paid or why such yardsticks do not apply to the superstars.
What the messaging going out here? The definition of a bully comes to mind: a person who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate those whom they perceive as vulnerable. An adjunct to that is how obsequious such types are before the powerful.
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