The 1983 team that won the World Cup got Rs 1 lakh each for their efforts. There’s quite a story about how that happened, and there are, as usual, many versions of it. This is mine.
Our dressing room at Lord’s was like a fish market, with barely room to move as we ran in, elated and screaming with joy after Mohinder Amarnath got the last wicket. Those who have seen the video of that match will have seen how crowded the balcony of the dressing room was as that last West Indies wicket fell. Inside, it was even more crowded as people, mainly Indians, whom most of us had never seen before, were clapping and patting players on the backs.
The BCCI president then was Shri NKP Salve, a minister in the Central Government cabinet at the time. He was one of the nicest persons one could ever hope to meet and ever ready to help the players. As it happened, there was just one bottle of champagne in the dressing room to celebrate the win, and the skipper, Kapil Dev, poured a generous dose into Shri Salve’s glass and told him that he should announce a prize for the team members.
We were a squad of 14 players and a team manager. Shri Salve had a few BCCI dignitaries with him, and after consulting them, he announced Rs 25,000 for each member of the team. If memory serves me right, we were to get Rs 2,500 for that campaign, so basically, we were going to be given 10 times that amount as a reward for winning the World Cup. Obviously, we wanted a bit more, and to do that, we needed to ply Shri Salve with a bit more champagne. But there was only one bottle, the contents of which had been shared with just over 100 people in that changing room.
Another couple of bottles were procured, thanks to the generosity of one of the dressing room-crashing well-wishers, and Shri Salve’s glass was replenished. Then the dressing room attendant came and said that the Lord’s authorities had left a couple of crates of champagne in the West Indies changing room in anticipation of their win. So Kapil and Madan Lal took courage in their hands and went to the dressing room, where Clive Lloyd, morosely but generously, permitted them to spirit one crate to our dressing room.
Despite our best efforts to fill Shri Salve’s glass with several cheers, he wouldn’t commit more than he had announced. He was a practical man and knew the BCCI didn’t have the money to give to the players. Then Raj Singh Dungarpur said he would request the one and only Lata (Mangeshkar) didi to have a concert for the team, and from the proceeds, each player would get Rs 1 lakh. The concert raised much more than Rs 15 lakh, and the surplus was kept by the BCCI. But we didn’t mind as we knew the financial situation of the BCCI at the time.
Now, after our boys won the Champions Trophy, the BCCI announced a whopping Rs 58 crore for the squad and the support staff and selection committee. In July last year, after the stirring victory in the ICC T20 World Cup, the BCCI announced Rs 125 crore for the squad, support staff, and selectors. This is truly fantastic, as the Board, which is now awash with funds, is showing its appreciation for the efforts put in by everybody and rewarding them generously. The BCCI is also letting the players keep the prize money that the ICC announced for the winners, which is also a good amount each.
After the ICC T20 World Cup win and the Board announcement of prize money, the then-coach Rahul Dravid, ever the team man, refused to accept more than his fellow members of the coaching staff and, in fact, shared it equally with his colleagues.
It’s been a fortnight since the BCCI announced the Champions Trophy rewards, but we haven’t heard anything from the current coach on whether he will also do a Dravid. Or is it that Dravid, in this instance, is not a good role model?
