VCA’s cash bonanza for retired players
18 Nov 2022 08:41:45
By Anupam Soni
THERE is a huge reason for former Vidarbha players, men and women both, to rejoice as the region’s premier sporting institution —Vidarbha Cricket Association has announced starting of pension for women while doubling the amount of pension for men.
Time and again, VCA had made their intentions of taking women’s cricket very seriously and giving a thrust to it, the association has come out with the noble policy that will help many former players. And at the same time, it will encourage and motivate the present crop of senior and junior players to take the sport more seriously.
“Any retired woman player who represented Vidarbha at senior level before 2017 will get a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 from December 1, 2022. Likewise, men’s pension has also been hiked from Rs 5,000 (presently) to 10,000 per month. It will also come into effect from December 1. VCA will also hold Annual Cricket League for women on the lines of Guzder League from this season (2022-23),” informed VCA President Adv Adwait Manohar, while sharing details of VCA’s Executive Committee Meeting that was held on Thursday, with ‘The Hitavada’.
Adv Manohar, who wants to promote women’s cricket in the region, convinced the body after deep study.
“Women’s cricket came under the BCCI fold in the year 2006. But women players have been representing Vidarbha from much earlier time. In those days, women’s cricket was also not under VCA. And as such there are no official records with players to prove their credentials. We have come up with some simple alternatives. We will accept the newspaper cuttings, the certificates they received after playing any tournament or ICA (Indian Cricketers Association) membership, as proof of their participation at senior level. We are sure that ICA must have given membership (to women players) after thoroughly examining the credentials.
“The men’s’ cut-off date for pension eligibility was fixed as year 2003. But I have reviewed the pay structure of women players for a long span of time and got to know that they were paid Rs 1,500-2,000 in early years and by 2017, it was about Rs 10,000 per match. The committee decided to have 2017 as the cut-off date for women players to be eligible for pension scheme.
“The case had cropped up during an EC meeting three years ago but the members did not approve it then. But this time, I was able to convince the members and finally we will be starting the pension from December. I have also asked the committee to make sure that there is no discrimination in granting of pension and at the same time we must acknowledge their contribution towards development of women’s cricket in the region,” Adv Manohar explained in detail.
Male cricketers, who have played more than 25 games for their associations, are eligible for BCCI pension. VCA are giving pension to those players who are not getting anything from the BCCI. VCA is giving pension to senior men who have played from 1-24 matches.
It may be mentioned that the President himself was also eligible for the same pension as he had represent Vidarbha at senior level (in 13 games — six FC and seven List A matches) but he had politely refused to accept it.
In women’s case, even BCCI is offering nothing to domestic players. The pension scheme is in place for women who have played international cricket and that too is loaded with ambiguity.
Women players in the region don’t have any regular tournament and the exposure is limited to only players who get selected for camps. VCA also finalised in the EC meeting to introduce an annual cricket tourney for women.
“There are no matches or tournaments for women in the region and we have decided to conduct an Annual Cricket League for women on the lines of Guzder League from this season (2022-23) to encourage players. It will be an inter-club invitational tournament. All clubs will be invited and all those clubs who can form (women) teams will play. It will be exactly like the Guzder League but only white ball as women cricket is limited to 50 and 20-over formats. It will an open tournament ... to start with. U-19 girls can play in this and for Under-15 girls, we will see in future what an be done,” Adv Manohar signed off.