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?
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.
3 comments:
first... kudos for the research work... brilliant stuff... especially the names of the chief minister... some google search u had to go through..:)
second.... yiour statement... "I too, like you and many others world over am ecstatic that our team has returned home victorious." the only ones excited about the win which not even is a real form of cricket are the indians, especially in india.... rest of the world, at least most of the world doesnt even know the game, leave alone rejoicing...
but as far as the monetary incentives are concerend... absolutely with you... its ridiculous... people are dying of hunger... and they are giving away 20 30 lakhs as is they were 20 30 rupees (in my case, even that is spendthriftness!)...
as far as othetr sports are concerend... think they have to do something as great as winning the WC... may be then they can get some recognition... which is a gfar cry
so let cricket bask in the limited sun it gets in india... and torture us cricket haters like hell...
i have to agree with neel..grt research wrk..googling maharashtra cm's name..wow!..keep up the good wrk..:)
but on a serious note,even i have been disturbed by this utmost show of apathy to any sport other than cricket..itz almost farcical to call cricket championships world cups..i mean they have to invite teams from Honolulu and Madagascar to fill their minimum 12 slots.. our hockey team won the asia cup,not only that they actually defended their title...defeated teams by 20-0 margins n u actually have to go through with a magnifying glass to find any mention of that in the papers... i had been doing a bit of research of my own recently, n found out our hockey team is ranked 8th in the world..which is actually a feat given the kind of step-motherly trtmnt the sport gets...in tennis we have bhupati n paes..who've won 17 grand slam title among themselves..r two of the best doubles players,in chess no 1 in men n no 2 in women are indians,in golf we have milkha singh,atwal,randhawa doing pretty awesome...n the list goes on...these guys r consistently good n get passing mentions.... n sehwag,sachin r being given just one more 'last chance' to come back in form...(ok, now wen did i get so impassioned bout sports!!
i'll b a girly girl now n tlk only bout shopping n clothes..heehee )
but hey nice piece..luking frwrd to more..cngtz on blogging 'gain
devlina
Very well said i guess that it would be good if our players and the concerned politicians get to read this blog of yours.....
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