Okay, so the Indian Team won T20 World Cup. Wow…fantastic….brilliant…..super-duper cool…awesome, yup! I hope you get the drift. I too, like you and many others world over am ecstatic that our team has returned home victorious. More so over the fact that they deserved it, the last three matches had been seriously competitive but the Boys in Blue gave in their 100% to the very last minute.
Besides the grand arrival, the T20 Team has also been showered with intense monetary rainfall. Right after the India-Pak finals, BCCI announced a $2 million reward to the team members. Cash awards have also been announced for individual members for their glorious feat at the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa. Yuvraj Singh will also be getting an additional Rs 1 crore and not to forget the promised sports car for becoming the first batsman to hit six sixes in an over in a Twenty20 match.
All good, I say. After all the Indian Team deserves it and BBCI being the cricket board of the country can reward them as per their desires.
But what I can’t get to comprehend is the method of appreciation chosen by our State Governments.
I mean don’t you find a bit absurd?

- Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has announced a cash incentive of Rs 10 lakh each for Ajit Agarkar and Rohit Sharma.

- Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has announced that her Government would give cash award of Rs 5 lakh each to Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag.

- R. P. Singh will receive Rs 10 lakh in cash and a citation from the UP government as mark of recognition for his brilliant performance.

- Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has announced an award of Rs 5 lakh each for Venkatesh Prasad, the bowling coach of the team, and Robin Uthappa.

- The President of Andhra Pradesh’s Telangana Rashtriya Samiti has announced a rewards of Rs 1,16,000 each to Dhoni, Irfan Pathan and Gautam Gambhir.

- Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has announced a cash reward of Rs 21 lakh for Joginder Sharma.

- Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh offered a week’s free stay to all the members of the team in any of the HP Tourism Development Corporation hotels in the state.

- Tamil Nadu Government announced Rs 5 lakh cash reward for Dinesh Karthik.

- Team India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will receive the first ever ‘Jharkhand Ratna’ Award which carries a cash award of Rs 5 lakh and a memento.

- Tax exemption for all players.

Why? As it is, Cricket is a popular sport in this country, plus after this triumph most of the T20 players are likely to pocket huge sums of money via brand endorsements. Then why are the State Governments allowed to fool around with our money, which only seems to be an attempt by them to match-up to their neighboring State’s generosity. Instead this money could have been used for tons of more needful causes - like encouraging other sports at schools and colleges, funding our eternally deprived hockey teams, investing in the much needed sporting equipments, etc and etc.
Why are other sports and players in our country treated like orphans and why are our politicians baised towards cricket? Don’t you think our football team deserved the same kind of treatment after winning the Nehru Cup earlier this year? It’s really sickening to see how low our political leaders are ready to stoop to, just to get few mentions in the media while completely ignoring their basic duties towards the common man.