This Indian team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni has gone where no Indian team has gone before.Never before since India played its first Test has India lost eight consecutive tests abroad.They drew a Test against Bradman's australia and even in 1936.It had come to seven in a row against England and Australia in 1967-68 but a victory against Newzealand,incidentally India's first overseas win,stopped further damage.Even when India were poor tourists with mainly amateurs players being who were often rewarded with lowly paid clerical jobs in Banks, Indian cricketers held out for some memorable draws.
We have moved from amateur cricketers to another state of economic situation when the BCCI contract is not a major part of the cricketr's earnings.The BCCI has other means but match fees or the Bank job is not dependant on performance in one form alone. Suresh Raina is a celebrity with ordinary test record and Rohit Sharma is a household name without having played a Test.Limited Overs cricket and club based t20 has the possibility to keep cricketers well paid even without playing a test. Saurav Tiwari earns more by playing cricket than perhaps Cheteshwar Pujara does simply because he has played a few ODIs for India and talented first class performers with reasonable IPL records have their IPL match fees capped at 30 Lakhs.The endorsements for Indian cricketers can come inspite of team performances as their IPL performances will also keep them in public consciousness.
Time has come therefore to move ahead on the Supreme Court decision in Zee Telefilms vs BCCI case.The team playing for BCCI is not a national team in the strict sense and BCCI therefore does not come in the ambit of instrumentality of the state under Article 12 of the Constitution. BCCI and its cricketers can no doubt ply their wares for the consuming public but just like the scenes where actor smokes in fil;ms have to show that smoking is harmful, every broadcast of matches involving India should have a ticker running with the message that the team playing for BCCI is not representing India and is a private team representing a Registered Society.This will therefore distance the atists that the BCCI cricketers really are from the national representatives who may be participating in other sports from Khokho to Wrestling.
We have moved from amateur cricketers to another state of economic situation when the BCCI contract is not a major part of the cricketr's earnings.The BCCI has other means but match fees or the Bank job is not dependant on performance in one form alone. Suresh Raina is a celebrity with ordinary test record and Rohit Sharma is a household name without having played a Test.Limited Overs cricket and club based t20 has the possibility to keep cricketers well paid even without playing a test. Saurav Tiwari earns more by playing cricket than perhaps Cheteshwar Pujara does simply because he has played a few ODIs for India and talented first class performers with reasonable IPL records have their IPL match fees capped at 30 Lakhs.The endorsements for Indian cricketers can come inspite of team performances as their IPL performances will also keep them in public consciousness.
Time has come therefore to move ahead on the Supreme Court decision in Zee Telefilms vs BCCI case.The team playing for BCCI is not a national team in the strict sense and BCCI therefore does not come in the ambit of instrumentality of the state under Article 12 of the Constitution. BCCI and its cricketers can no doubt ply their wares for the consuming public but just like the scenes where actor smokes in fil;ms have to show that smoking is harmful, every broadcast of matches involving India should have a ticker running with the message that the team playing for BCCI is not representing India and is a private team representing a Registered Society.This will therefore distance the atists that the BCCI cricketers really are from the national representatives who may be participating in other sports from Khokho to Wrestling.
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