I am one of the millions who celebrated the whole night when India won the coveted World Cup 2011. This sweet memory is going to last forever in my mind but so is the pain and stigma related to it.
There is no denying of the fact that the players did a great job on the field which needs to be appreciated and even rewarded. But it would be rather audacious for the state governments to reward their respective state players from the funds meant for soft sectors like education. The opportunity cost is too big and sadly no one really thinks of it! Its encouraging to see few NGO's raising a voice against it along with a handful of so called 'Concerned Netizen' decking up their blogs with an article on it. I , fortunately or unfortunately, having a go at the same.
Such rewards, as per me, carry multi dimensional threats. These can be :
- A direct impact on a reduced budget for sectors like education. And I guess, I need not highlight the importance of education across gender, age, caste and other forms of differentiating factors our society can come up with! An additional burden on government exchequer (due to reasons ranging from corruption to such cash rewards) has become a rhetoric now for sure.
- A possible discontentment for cricketers with in the team hailing from a backward state which cannot match up (in terms of the amount of reward) with the prosperous states like Punjab.
- Sports person who made India proud in other fields like Chess, Badminton, Tennis et al might not be particularly elated to see windfall of such magnitude for cricketers. Though I doubt they will be surprised.
- And lastly, this is sets up a wrong example and send a clear unwanted message to the cricketers who are backed by one of the richest sports body in the world. I do not want my bunny's to jump only when they see a golden carrot.Cricketers are supposed to play cricket, which they did. They performed well and a good performance calls in for a bonus which is the World Cup prize money itself (US$ 3 million, source Wikipedia confirmed by wiki leaks) Coming from a compensation background, I stick my neck out and dare say that BCCI should revamp its rewards policy and should rather consider focusing on some CSR ( Corporate Social Responsibility)!
My arguments might seem a bit unrealistic to some, but I feel money can make things happen even if they are most unrealistic and hypothetical of the events!
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ReplyDeleteWell Said dude...I completely agree with all the threats you mentioned. Cricketers got the reward in terms of the Prize Money. Now rewarding and shelling out crores of money by the state govt does not make sense. These crores of rupees may not add much value to the players kitty but these meant a lot for the few people who spends there night on roads or those who don't get a balanced meal for the day. Govt should need to spent the money on other imp issues like education, healthcare and poverty....
ReplyDeleteWell said my friend. But isnt it just typically true of Indians and India. It is this uncanny characteristic of us Indians to over do things. I think that its impossible for this nation to stick up for any other sport like it does for cricket (and I am a culprit as well. So in the face of this dillemma, the BCCI has a wonderful opportunity to earn some brownie points. Promote other sports. Rather than just filling their coffers with cash and sitting idle, they should do something concrete for the upliftment of other sports. I know we have the sports ministry and the IOA and the likes but nothing like a power wielding, rich board for backup. And if they cannot do anything, the least they should do is give Poonam Pandey what she seeks, at least claims to have seeked, a permission from the BCCI.
ReplyDeleteMaking hype of any good or bad thing is something that we have seen happening over the years.
ReplyDeleteIt looks small over other issues in sports like giving tax exemption to ICC world cup when it was a grand success and BCCI made tons of money and at the same time other sportsmen dont get basic necessities...
Though the best part of the blog was "Coming from a compensation background"..:P
using work ex everywhere.. huh
write more frequently, if possible
even after seeing so many ppl raising their voices against such a reward policy nothing must hv entered the cricketers head...had d they been ashamed of this act of their state government they shudnt hv accepted the entire money/retuned sum or donated a part of it for some good cause...if local ppl like us cant extract money out of the minting and corrupt government,,atleast cricketers shud hv tried to do so... if such cash reward reduced the budget allocated for developmental projects...the cricketers should have donated the same money (not all but atleast some)towards the same developemntal cause......
ReplyDeleteit wud have been like a slap on the government's face and they very rightly deserve it....
and its not just about cricket...the same government uses people's money for security of celebrities and ministers when it cud hv judiciously used it for nations security.......
such an initiative by the cricketers wud hv atleast been a small step towards stopping the government from wasting people's money