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Lockdown dims sideline stars
Mumbai/New Delhi/Lucknow
Mumbai/New Delhi/Lucknow
Mudassir Khan repairs cricket bats. He has his corner outside Channawala’s tent, a prime spot in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan. If not for the lockdown, Mumbai’s Azad Maidan would have been packed right now by the young and old. And the welfare of many of their bats would have been in the hands of Khan. On an average, Khan would repair six to seven bats every day, thereby ensuring a daily income of ₹500 to ₹600, a joy he took over from his grandfather, a Maidan regular since 1994.
Mohammed Asad Shaikh is a groundsman at Azad Maidan’s Young Mohammedan Cricket Club, who also sells cricket balls to supplement his income. Both Shaikh and Khan, Azad Maidan regulars for decades, returned home to their villages in UP just before the national lockdown, after cricket at the Maidan came to a halt. They have not earned in weeks.
Nadim Memon, Mumbai Cricket Association Apex Council member, says groundsmen earn between Rs 8,000-12,000 a month. “They make extra money from the private matches played on their wickets, getting 25% of what is paid for use of the ground. That has stopped.”
Shaikh and Khan are on the fringes of the wealthiest sport in India. The BCCI is the richest cricket board in the world and the IPL, its marquee event, generated $1.5 billion in sponsorship revenues alone in 2018, according to a CNBC report.
So, most players, coaches, groundsmen and staff on the rolls of BCCI’s affiliates are insured against the current loss of income. But freelance umpires, coaches and owners of academies are feeling the impact of the lockdown.
Shaikh got help from the eight-team Mumbai Premier League. Team owners have started a fund for groundsmen with a contribution of Rs 1 lakh each. But with the tools of his trade locked in an iron trunk, Khan has got no protection.
Coaches running private nets have no fail-proof way of making ends meet either. Rohit Balla, who has around 47 trainees at his academy in Andheri East, says that his business couldn’t have been affected at a worse time. “Many haven’t paid for February because we take it after the month. Only the big academies have the rule of advance payment. The fees for March, the students will anyway not give. But we still have to pay the salaries of the coaches and groundsmen,” says Balla.
The story is not unique to Mumbai. “Including salaries, we would be paying out Rs 60-70,000 in expenses even with the academy shut,” says Devdutt, who owns the Harbir Cricket Academy that runs out of a school in Dwarka, New Delhi. Also from Delhi, Surender Dabas runs three coaching centres on leased grounds and estimates he would lose around Rs 2-2.5 lakh in a month.
Usually, summer holidays in schools lead to a ‘bumper period’ in cricket coaching centres. But the big fear remains that even when the lockdown ends, concerned parents will be reluctant to send their children out of fear of infection.
Also taking a hit are umpires. “My income is what I earn from umpiring. When there is no local match, we are not getting anything,” says Aqueel Khan, from Uttar Pradesh. Many at Azad Maidan can relate to what Aqueel is facing. Not all of them are qualified umpires but they know enough of the rules to fetch up at Channawala’s and get to officiate at non-association games.
For a day’s work, they would get around Rs 1500. Today, in a barren Azad Maidan, there hasn’t been work in a while; and possibly for many more days to come.
(With inputs from Sanjjeev K Samyal, Khurram Habib, Sharad Deep)
