Day after T20 triumph, Rs 125 cr for Rohit Sharma’s men

Rohit Mahajan

Chandigarh, June 30

A day after India beat South Africa to win the T20 World Cup after a gap of 17 years, Indian cricket board (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah announced a staggering Rs 125 crore for the team, the biggest-ever prize for an Indian team. When India won the 1983 World Cup, each member of the team was awarded Rs 1 lakh; in 2007, when MS Dhoni’s team won the inaugural T20 World Cup, it got a $3 million bonus, a little less than Rs 12 crore at the time. Victory for India’s cricket teams is mostly measured in money, and this sum easily outstrips anything from the past — a reflection of BCCI’s riches.

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After India won the final in Bridgetown, skipper Rohit Sharma said: “It is written… But you don’t know for when it’s written.”

But Sharma’s retirement from T20I cricket wasn’t written — it came on the spur of the moment, soon after Virat Kohli announced his own T20I retirement. “I don’t make decisions like this about my future. Whatever I feel is right from inside, I try to do,” Rohit said.

With this, the Big Two of Indian cricket, the captain and his predecessor, have simultaneously decided they’d play no more T20 cricket for the country, though they would continue to play for their clubs in the cash-rich IPL. Another key player, Ravindra Jadeja, followed suit on Sunday. These big boots will take some filling, though there is a steady stream of youngsters coming through the IPL. BCCI president Roger Binny said: “It’ll take time. We’ll probably see in the next two-three years, the team coming back into its own without them. The trio chose the right time to go, though, for they’re getting on — Rohit is 37, Kohli and Jadeja turn 36 in November and December, respectively. They are in the evening of their international careers, though good enough for perhaps five years more in the IPL — in which MS Dhoni did well recently even in his 43rd year. Binny’s words suggest a dire situation, but the fact is that these players don’t play too much T20 cricket for India, anyway — Rohit has played 11 T20Is this year, Kohli 10 and Jadeja eight; the numbers were 0, 0 and 2, respectively, last year.

Chief coach Rahul Dravid goes too, having communicated to the BCCI his decision not to seek another tenure. He had taken over from Ravi Shastri in November 2021 and leaves a happy man, finally winning a trophy as coach. “It’s two years of work. This is not a work of just this World Cup. I think it culminated in this World Cup,” he said.

The search for the man who’d replace Dravid is on, and Gautam Gambhir, the former BJP MP, is the hot favourite for the job — Binny, habitually reticent, had effusive praise for Gambhir. “Gambhir has got a lot of experience and if he takes the job, it’s definitely going to be a good thing for Indian cricket. He is experienced that’s what India needs,” Binny said in Bridgetown. “India needs a coach who has played the game, and he has played in all three formats of the game.”