Does Cheteshwar Pujara Really Deserve to Miss the Money Train?
Should Pujara take a financial hit just because he has dedicated his career to the longest format of cricket?
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Cheteshwar Pujara is the season’s highest run-scorer in whites. He was also India’s top run-getter in the recently concluded Australia Test series. Add to that the fact that he is ranked fourth in ICC’s standings for Test batsmen, and Pujara has a lot to show for the last 9 months of cricket.
For the next two months though, he will sit home and be reduced to a mere spectator. Why? Because it’s IPL time, and T20 cricket has a way of showing Pujara his place in the world.
Forget for a moment the fact that Pujara, India’s top performer with the bat, a player who has left even skipper Virat Kohli behind, has no IPL contract. Forget that the one player who comes closest to the romance of Dravid’s cricket, was rejected by all eight teams in this Feb’s IPL auction, despite quoting a base price as low as Rs 50 lakh.
Forget all that, because the BCCI cannot control what team owners choose for their 30-odd squad.
What the BCCI can help with, however, is what salary Cheteshwar Pujara takes home for dedicating his life to Indian cricket.
In a recent (and long overdue) move by the BCCI’s Committee of Administrators, all Indian cricketers saw their central contracts doubled. Along with MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja and Murali Vijay, Pujara now stands to make Rs 2 crore a year as retainer from the BCCI. Add to that Rs 15 lakh for every Test he plays, and that’s a lot of money.
Around Rs 4.65 crore, to give you a rough estimate (calculated on the basis of India’s 2016 cricket roster).
Rs 4.65 crore a year to Cheteshwar Pujara for being among the best Test batsmen in the world. The same world of cricket that pays Ben Stokes Rs 14.5 crore for just two months of his year, in the IPL.
Rs 4.65 crore a year by the same board that stands to make anywhere between Rs 18,000 to Rs 30,000 crore just from IPL broadcast rights for the next 10 years. The same board that made a surplus of Rs 509.13 crore in the 2016-17 financial year.
For Indian context, Virat Kohli earns an estimated Rs 15 crore from his IPL salary. MS Dhoni was sold for Rs 12.5 crore a year to Rising Pune Supergiant in 2016 and T Nataraj, a player who’s featured in a handful of Ranji matches for Tamil Nadu, will make Rs 3 crore in the next two months via IPL.
If money was the only measure of success, where does Cheteshwar Pujara figure with his double-century-scoring bat? The ability to carry his bat through 11 hours of a gruelling Test match, the skill to deny the best of bowlers, and the talent to single-handedly change the course of a Test match. What is that worth?
The Rs 509.13 crore profit in the 2016-17 financial year is a fact I need to throw in here again. Because it is not like ‘the richest cricket board in the world’ cannot afford a complete overhaul in the pay structure of Indian cricketers. It is just that they won’t.
Richest board you think would mean richest cricketers? The answer would be in the negative here as well. Because even as the BCCI’s profit margins continue to rise, the players who put the board in a position to demand such high sums, are earning less than their Aussie, English and even South African counterparts.
A point put forward by former Team Manager Ravi Shastri, who called the Indian Cricket Team’s current salaries “peanuts”
8 crore. 7 crore. 4 crore. To play cricket? Too much money you say?
Just for context, Cristiano Ronaldo, who spends the majority of his year playing club football – just as Pujara does playing for his nation – earns Rs 325 crore a year only from Real Madrid.
Still think cricketers earn too much?
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)