CHENNAI: THE scorching sun was beating down relentlessly when Ram Dayal (name changed) along with a few other ground staff were busy giving the final touches to the surface. It was mid-summer. The curator was standing close-by, hollering instructions. With the venue scheduled to host an international cricket match in a couple of days, Dayal and his colleagues had no option but to work from dawn to dusk without worrying about the extreme heat and its effects on the body.
If it is heat in the plains of the sub-continent, extreme cold and frost in the Himalayas and northeast India make their job extremely hazardous. Yet they labour on with their chores without fuss. They are the invisible force that help to maintain the beauty of the ground with manicured grass, sporting wicket that can produce runs and results and other associated paraphernalia that turn a game of cricket into a fascinating contest.
Rain or sunshine, snow or thaw... these men and women are the first to reach and last to leave whenever their venues host matches. Even on non-match days, they are responsible to protect the field of play from the vagaries of nature and sometimes even humans and animals. Yet, the return they get is pittance compared the revenue a game generates. They work for minuscule sums; most of the times, they are lower than the minimum daily wage rates as revised by the Government of India with effect from October 1, 2024.
Daily wages as per the government guidelines for scheduled employments in the central sphere (mines, railways, ports, construction). range from `783 (unskilled) to ₹1,035 (highly skilled), depending on the area ((\A,B,C\)) and skill level. Unfortunately, these men and women earn between ₹350/day to ₹850/day.
“It varies from state to state. In states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and other smaller cricketing centres, the daily wage for the ground staff is as low as ₹350. Some other state units like Karnataka and Bengal give them more than ₹800 per day,” a chief curator of a Test centre told this daily.
Accountability but no money
A Test centre needs at least a dozen grounds people to maintain the ground. The demand for them can grow ten times for matches. Usually, a state association hires services of 10 to 15 ground staff on an annual basis and employs additional workforce for matches. It means a majority of them are not well versed with the job, which demands utmost care and expertise. And of late because of the low payment, finding people for has become more tedious.
“At times, it’s difficult to find people because they get less than their regular income. The accountability is far more than what they earn. For ordinary work, they get ₹600 or even ₹800 per day. Most of the time, those who love the game and want to watch their stars from close quarters come in. But even that charm fades with time as at the end of day, everyone needs money,” lamented the curator.
A senior scorer from a state association sang from the same hymn sheet. “I have no complaints as far as my job is concerned. I must say the BCCI is doing a wonderful job for all its stakeholders. The only grey area is apathy towards the ground staff. I must say they deserve better treatment as they are the heart and soul of the sport. They lay the foundation for the game of cricket and hence deserve respect in every sense. The board gives financial assistance to every state association and so it can also direct them to frame a welfare policy for them. They can provide them with health insurance and other benefits,” added the scorer.
All is not well with scorers
Rohan (name changed) comes to the stadium well in advance and opens his laptop and starts entering details. He is the first one to reach (if he is sitting at the media centre) and the last one to leave on a matchday. He would help with statistics, numbers and figures. With technology, they have changed. Unlike the days when they had to enter details in a scoresheet, now they have to feed it in computers too. They get instant data from their software. It is a bit easier, but off the ground if not a senior international scorer, life is still a struggle.
The above-mentioned scorer might be happy with the returns he is getting but there are others from his fraternity, who strongly feel BCCI needs to have a re-look at their remunerations. A scorer gets ₹15,000 per day for a domestic match and ₹25,000 per day for an international match. For the shortest version, they receive half the sum they get for a full day (₹7500). “A scorer is hired for 35 to 40 days in a year for domestic tournaments. This means he or she earns between ₹5 to 6 lakh. Given the rotation policy of the BCCI, a centre hardly gets more than a couple of matches in a season. IPL is a good source of income for scorers but again not all centres host matches. This makes most of us do part-time jobs. But on matchdays, our other employers deduct our salaries as we skip that work,” said a scorer, who has been part of a state association for around three decades.
BCCI hiked the fee from ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 for domestic matches a couple of years ago. If one goes back to 2005, the fee was ₹400 per day for domestic matches and ₹600 per day for international matches. A comparison suggests tremendous hike but add to it rising inflation and cost of living, the raise will start looking meagre.
Centralised distribution
Scorers along with groundstaff were hit hard during the the pandemic. The BCCI paid the cricketers 50 per cent of match fees they received the previous season to compensate them. Unfortunately, it did not offer any relief to the scorers, who were left to fend for themselves. “There are associations which host a lot of matches, be it domestic or international. Since a state unit appoints scorers, most of them prefer their scorers. Of late, the BCCI has started appointing two scorers for every international match apart from scorers from the home association. It’s a welcome move. Besides, in case of need, a state association can hire scorers from other states as well but it’s a rarity. The solution can be centralised appointment of scorers for equal distribution of matches. The BCCI appoints umpires and the same can be done with the scorers as well,” said the scorer.
Curators better placed
Curators are better placed if compared to ground staff and scorers but they still deserve more. The curators are classified into two categories — elite panel and emerging panel. An elite panel curator gets a monthly salary of around ₹1 lakh. They also get ₹3,500 per day while on duty for a match. An emerging panel curator earns ₹15000 per day when assigned for a match. It is termed as consultation charge. The BCCI takes care of travel and accommodation of both categories of the curators.
While the elite panel curator is guaranteed a monthly income, their counterpart from the emerging panel has to depend on the number of matches they get in a year. Such curators usually lend their services for around seven to eight days for a multi-day match. At the end of the day, just like scorers, it all boils down to the number of days they are employed for.
“Most of us get work between 50 to 100 days which takes our annual income to between ₹10 lakh to ₹15 lakh, which is good. Apart from this, a majority of us are employed with the state associations and hence get paid by them. But there are a few who get fewer number of matches, eventually reducing their annual income drastically. So there needs to be a system which can ensure a minimum number of matches for each curator,” said a curator. Like ground staff, the curators also work 24x7 for an international match and hardly get time to visit their families during World Cups. IPL has also opened a new avenue of income for them. But for a holistic development, a lot can be done.