Legendary Indian batsman VVS Laxman has expressed his concerns over the well-being of India’s domestic cricketers amidst the uncertainty over the future of the domestic cricket season due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, saying it is very important to look after the players’ well-being.
He further said that it is mandatory and definitely the need of the hour that the state associations must provide contracts to India’s first-class cricketers in order to help them in this testing time.
About 700 players across India were impacted by the cancelation of India’s premier first-class competition – the Ranji Trophy due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Laxman believes that the first-class cricketers should get contracts from their state associations keeping in mind the sacrifices they have made to play cricket and insecurities because of no income due to the Coronavirus.
Laxman told Sportstar on Friday (June 5): “I have been telling this for a long time, that first-class cricketers should get contracts from their state associations keeping in mind that they are sacrificing everything and they are dedicating themselves to this game.”
He further questioned, “It is very important that a contract is handed over because what happens to a player if he suddenly gets injured? Suddenly there is no income for that player and if that player doesn’t have a job then how is he going to look after himself and his family?”
Recently, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly had said that the board will introduce a contract system for the domestic cricketers, but nothing has been materialized yet, while the state associations are waiting for clarity from the Indian cricket board regarding the same.
Laxman said, “A contract system - like it is there for the international players - has to be there for the domestic players. It is very important. Especially in the current situation, I believe that it is mandatory and definitely the need of the hour. It is very critical to look after the domestic players well-being.”
Last year in December, the BCCI had also proposed a compensation package for the domestic cricketers as they were badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic with no first-class cricket, but it also remains in the planning stage and former Indian batsman believes that the board should look into the matter.
Laxman further explained, “A compensation has to be made to these players. In the past, a lot of players used to have good jobs in a central or state government organization or private companies. Unfortunately, now the jobs that the players are getting are very scarce.
A lot of them have taken up cricket as career; it is no longer an amateur sport. The moment professionalism comes, it means they have to get paid, and unfortunately last year, because of the pandemic, some of them were not paid like they would if the entire season would have taken place.”
He signed off by saying, “I believe there should be some kind of a package which should be worked out by the BCCI for cricketers, especially the first-class cricketers, who don’t play the IPL, who don’t get to play international cricket. I think it's very important to look after them.”
(With Sportstar Inputs)
