Almost all sporting events across the globe have either been called off or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. While many sporting icons namely Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo have voluntarily accepted a massive reduction in their wages to help clubs tide over the financial storm.
Now when Indian Cricketers Association (ICA) president Ashok Malhotra implied pay cut for professional cricketers in the country, it did not go down well with batting legend Sunil Gavaskar. The former Indian cricketer criticised Ashok Malhotra saying that its easy to talk when it doesn’t hurt your own pocket.
In his column for Mid-Day, Gavaskar wrote, “What was amusing though was to read that the president of the Indian Cricketers Association has said that there should be pay cuts for the Indian internationals and the first-class players too. One can understand him trying to curry favour with the BCCI but with whose authority is he talking about the cuts is the question”.
He added, “The current India internationals and the first-class players are not members of the players’ body so he can’t be speaking on their behalf. It’s easy to talk about taking pay cuts if it doesn’t hurt your own pocket.”
As for the claims made by Ashok Malhotra, BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal had denied such speculations. He said no discussions in that regards have taken place.
“It was heartening to read the BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal say that the BCCI has not discussed any pay cuts for its players,” Gavaskar wrote.
“There are no matches that India is playing till maybe June, so there really is no question of any pay cuts for the players. Like with any sport, if you don’t play you don’t get paid and that’s what will happen.”
As for cricket in the country, the Indian Premier League (IPL) was all set to begin from March 29 between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), however, due to COVID-19 outbreak, the cash-rich event has been shifted to April 15.
All international matches, as well as domestic matches, have been postponed till further notice.
