Craig Ervine has reportedly refused a Zimbabwe contract as he would be getting only US$ 100 per week against nearly twice he can earn playing club cricket in the UK.The wages a professional cricketer playing internationally across so many formats in Zimbabwe are so different when compared not only with the developed or BRICS countries but also compared to Bangladesh.India can absorb only limited numbers in IPL, but an international cricketer ready to go to England for US$200 per week should be lapped up by our private school system as Coaches and DPEs .Surely, Schools can afford Rs.30,000 per month which works out to more than 120 Dollars a week for 52 weeks.Besides an English speaking Test Match cricketer can obviously get other coaching and speaking deals.Time, perhaps for an agent to step in.
And that also brings us to the happy state prevailing in India for years altogether where a national player even in a minor sport gets a regular job in the Railways or the Services earning decent wages and housing.If they are good and go on to become PT Usha, they grow out of their jobs or rise within the organisation like the 1982 Asian Games Hockey Captain Prem Maya and the more famous Mohammed Shahid. Indian cricketers, of course, have it quite good from very old times. even in the seventies, they were making close to US$300 per test and had a full time job as well.Even Gundappa Vishwanath who did not go past high school, found comfortable bank jobs moving up the Security hierarchy.
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