Express view on variable pay in cricket: An unnecessary sticky wicket
It’s a cliche in cricket: Numbers are not everything. But they could turn out to be everything if the cricket board ratifies the proposed performance-based pay structure, which was floated in the review meeting after India’s defeat in Australia. The number of zeroes on players’ cheques could correspond to the number of wickets they pick up, or the runs they score. If they don’t meet the expected standards, they could potentially face a pay cut. The implied logic is that the uncertainty of pay keeps players on their toes, sustains their motivation levels, and staves off mid-career stagnation. But the variable-pay idea is a non-cricketing solution to a cricketing problem. It is antithetical to collective endeavour and spirit, the soul of team sports.
The hour’s need is ideas to reroute Indian cricket back to its glory days, not to formulate algebraic equations for performance metrics. Unlike in the corporate world, there are no set-in-stone targets to judge a performance. It’s the fascinating complexity of the game that the same statistic could be interpreted in multiple ways. A century in the second innings on a flat deck against tiring bowlers could be inferior to a fourth innings forty on a rank turner. A three-wicket burst by a pacer on a dead pitch could be more valuable than a six-for on a green-top. How would an umpiring howler leading to a low-score dismissal be tabulated on the accounts sheet? The game is bound by too many variables to be imprisoned by numbers. If the recommendation is accepted, the board might end up hiring a retinue of performance analysts — the sacred 5Ws and 1H framework — to dissect and grade every performance. Red-ball cricket could become a reality show — the obsession with the self could consume the ideals of the team. It risks more cricketers slipping out of the red-ball galaxy and leaping into the franchise universe. For flexible pay to work, boards will have to sell it by focusing on the greater amount a player could earn if his team is successful. Like it is for several football clubs in Europe or the American Football League.
It’s time to ask more game-specific questions. Why are India’s batsmen vulnerable to even the modest spinners? Why did Ravi Ashwin quit midway through a series? What happened to the supply-chain of seamers? Is there something fundamentally flawed about the domestic system? Do the selectors, the coaching staff and the players have a concerted plan forward? There are far too many questions for reviewers to analyse rather than come up with a corporate gimmick that shows that their vision forward is blurred and their thoughts cluttered.