MCA shows the way!

The victorious Mumbai Ranji team at Wankhede earlier this month. Pic/Atul Kamble

The Mumbai Cricket Association's decision to pay its players the same fees in addition to that the BCCI pays in domestic cricket doesn't come as a surprise. The MCA has been one of the most progressive Associations in India and is unafraid to take calls that will benefit its cricketers. It doesn't have to be only those who play for Mumbai, but also those club cricketers who are playing in the maidans.

Not only the players, but also the ground staff at the maidans can turn to MCA to have their grievances addressed. This has been a tradition over the years and it's this kind of champion thinking that produces champion teams.

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When Mumbai won the Ranji Trophy for the 42nd time a couple of weeks back, the MCA matched the prize money offered by the BCCI. The only other Associations that would have done something similar would be the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) and the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA).

Most other Associations would have loved to keep the substantial subsidy of crores that they get from the BCCI every year in a bank and showed that proudly. What good is money in the bank if it's not used productively to develop the game in their part of the country?

Speaking of KSCA, many congratulations to them for the Golden Jubilee of their first Ranji Trophy win way back in 1974. They broke the stranglehold that the MCA had on the National Championship for 15 consecutive years. That win also made other teams believe they could also be champions.

Kudos to Karnataka

Today, if some of the unfancied teams are also winning the National Championship, the credit should go in no small measure to Karnataka for showing them the way. Hopefully, the KSCA will take this opportunity to celebrate the occasion by naming the stands after some of the stalwarts who won them the first Ranji title and also the others who followed in their wake and did so well not only for KSCA, but for India.

With a former Test cricketer and Ranji stalwart Raghuram Bhat at the helm of KSCA and Brijesh Patel the power behind the throne, hopefully it will be done before the last home match of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru this IPL. Brijesh, by the way, was in the team that won the first Ranji title and has been known to be one of the most progressive administrators in Indian cricket. Sadly, that can't be said of too many former cricketers-turned-administrators and invariably it's the cricket lovers-turned-administrators who are the ones who will push the envelope further.

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Indian cricket has had its share of some terrific administrators who have taken the game and Indian cricket forward. Much before my time in Indian cricket started with the Mumbai Schoolboys team, there were administrators who held the game together during some tough times and people like MA Chidambaram, PM Rungta, Fatehsinghrao Gaekwad were legends in Indian administration. Subsequently, there were RP Mehra, SK Wankhede, S Sriraman, M Chinnaswamy, NKP Salve to name a few.

Jagmohan Dalmiya not only took Indian cricket, but also world cricket to new heights. If the ICC is in extremely good financial health today, the start was made by Shri Dalmiya's initiative of the ICC Champions Trophy. Shri Sharad Pawar was the first to start a Cricket Improvement Committee in the MCA that gave all cricket related decisions to former cricketers in Mumbai. Even Lalit Modi will agree that under any other President than Shri Pawar, the Indian Premier League (IPL) would never have taken off. N Srinivasan, another big cricket lover, whose company India Cements employs several cricketers (some who don't even play Ranji cricket), was the one who completed the task of the one-off pension for former international cricketers started under Shri Pawar.

Today, Jay Shah despite all the political agenda-driven criticism, is the one who has got the Women's Premier League (WPL) started, brought the match fees of Indian women on par with the men's team, doubled the monthly pension for former cricketers and trebled the reward for those players who play all the Test matches in one year. It won't be a surprise if, from next season, the fees for Ranji players are increased substantially because he knows the heart of Indian cricket is the domestic game while the IPL brings in the moolah.

Medical care limit, a concern

Another aspect that needs addressing is the medical compensation given to former cricketers. While the entire medical expense of a current India player, who is not short of a rupee or two, is taken care of by the BCCI, there's a limit on what medical relief former cricketers get as they age and get down with serious ailments.
They are the ones who have laid the foundation of today's cricket and at a time when there was hardly any money in the game. Hopefully, the financial limit on their medical care will be removed. If Jay does it, he will have the eternal blessings of the entire Indian cricketing community.

Professional Management Group