MCA shows the way!

The Mumbai Cricket Associationrsquos decision to pay its players the same fees in addition to that the BCCI pays in domestic cricket doesnrsquot 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 doesnrsquot have to be only those who play for Mumbai but also those club cricketers who are playing in the maidansNot 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 itrsquos this kind of champion thinking that produces champion teamsAlso Read Sinner stuns Medvedev to set up final with DimitrovWhen 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 KSCAMost 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 itrsquos not used productively to develop the game in their part of the countrySpeaking 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 championsKudos to KarnatakaToday 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 IndiaWith 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 canrsquot be said of too many former cricketersturnedadministrators and invariably itrsquos the cricket loversturnedadministrators who are the ones who will push the envelope furtherAlso Read IPL 2024 LSG vs PBKS Lucknow Super Giants beat Punjab Kings by 21 runsIndian 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 fewJagmohan 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 Dalmiyarsquos 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 donrsquot even play Ranji cricket was the one who completed the task of the oneoff pension for former international cricketers started under Shri PawarToday Jay Shah despite all the political agendadriven criticism is the one who has got the Womenrsquos Premier League WPL started brought the match fees of Indian women on par with the menrsquos 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 wonrsquot 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 moolahMedical care limit a concernAnother 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 therersquos a limit on what medical relief former cricketers get as they age and get down with serious ailmentsThey are the ones who have laid the foundation of todayrsquos 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 communityProfessional Management Group