Vidarbha Cricket Association declares pension for retired female cricketers

In a great piece of welcoming news, Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) has announced the board will double the pension its former male cricketers have been receiving and in a progressive move has also stated, the board is getting started with issuing pensions to its female cricketers as well.

 

Vidarbha Women's Cricket Team. PC: BCCI Women / Twitter
Vidarbha Women’s Cricket Team. PC: BCCI Women / Twitter

 

Speaking to, ‘The Hitavada’, VCA’s President, Adv Adwait Manohar, stated, “Any retired woman player who represented Vidarbha at senior level before 2017 will get a monthly pension of Rs 10,000 from December 1, 2022. Likewise, men’s pension has also been hiked from Rs 5,000 (presently) to 10,000 per month. It will also come into effect from December 1.”

These decisions were taken during a VCA’s Executive Committee Meeting that was held on the 18th of November. Mr. Adwait elaborated on the brief, stating, “Women’s cricket came under the BCCI fold in the year 2006. But women players have been representing Vidarbha from a much earlier time. In those days, women’s cricket was also not under VCA. And as such there are no official records with players to prove their credentials.

“We have come up with some simple alternatives. We will accept the newspaper cuttings, and the certificates they received after playing any tournament or ICA (Indian Cricketers Association) membership, as proof of their participation at the senior level. We are sure that ICA must have given membership (to women players) after thoroughly examining the credentials.

“The men’s cut-off date for pension eligibility was fixed as the year 2003. But I have reviewed the pay structure of women players for a long span of time and got to know that they were paid Rs 1,500-2,000 in early years and by 2017, it was about Rs 10,000 per match. The committee decided to have 2017 as the cut-off date for women players to be eligible for the pension scheme.

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“The case had cropped up during an EC meeting three years ago but the members did not approve it then. But this time, I was able to convince the members, and finally, we will be starting the pension from December. I have also asked the committee to make sure that there is no discrimination in granting of pension and at the same time we must acknowledge their contribution towards the development of women’s cricket in the region.”

Mr. Adwait Manohar, further also mentioned, there’ll be “an annual cricket league for women on the lines of Guzder League from this season,” (2022-23).

Quoting as stated in ‘The Hitavada’, “There are no matches or tournaments for women in the region and we have decided to conduct an Annual Cricket League for women on the lines of Guzder League from this season (2022-23) to encourage players. It will be an inter-club invitational tournament.

“All clubs will be invited and all those clubs who can form (women) teams will play. It will be exactly like the Guzder League but only white ball as women’s cricket is limited to 50 and 20-over formats. It will an open tournament, to start with. U-19 girls can play in this and for Under-15 girls, we will see in the future what can be done.”

(Quotes sourced from The Hitavada)

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