Cash rewards: Games govts play

State governments might be quick to announce cash and other rewards for medal and World Cup-winning athletes, but they’re a lot slower when it comes to distributing the promised largesse.
This is why, several prominent athletes from Jharkhand got together just days ago publicly to complain they hadn’t received the money promised to them by their state government after a medal haul at February’s 34th National Games.
One of the disappointed Jharkhand athletes alleges the state can work pretty fast but only if it comes to promoting cricket. "Mahendra Singh Dhoni was given a 4,000 sq ft plot when he made his international debut. Now, after the World Cup victory, the state has announced it will give him five acres of land to set up a cricket academy in his name. They only want to create more Dhonis."
The Jharkhand government is defensive. Deputy CM Sudesh Mahto says that the National Games’ medal-winners have had to wait for their money because a "grand felicitation ceremony" is planned. "We are waiting for Dhoni to get free from the IPL since we have planned a grand felicitation ceremony for Dhoni and these medal winners," explains Mahto. He assures that the promised prizes - Rs 7 lakh to a gold medal-winner; Rs 5 lakh to a silver medalist and Rs 3 lakh to a bronze winner - will definitely be handed over.
Few are holding their breath. In Karnataka, Arjuna awardees and other sporting champions allege they are yet to receive prizes promised by the state government.
International success is no guarantee either that governments will keep their word - and promptly. The coach of a woman athlete from Haryana, who won gold at the 2009 Guangzhou Games and the 2010 Commonwealth Games, is dismissive. "Most medal winners of the 2009 championship are still waiting for their cash prizes and as for the CWG, the prize money for players has been disbursed while the coaches still wait in queue," he says.
He adds that it may be a lost cause at least this year "because I presume that as per procedure, all budgetary activities have to be wound up within the financial year."
Interestingly, almost everyone alleges that the reward system works well - and quickly - for cricketers and high-profile sportsmen. Former India hockey captain Pargat Singh, better known as the "Kapil Dev of hockey" because his team brought the World Cup home in 1979, says some sportspersons are treated better than others. And most of them play cricket.
But a sports ministry official denies bias, insisting that cash prizes for sportsmen come out of a fixed budget that’s based on "last year’s estimates". If further prize money is needed, "we have to wait for the next (legislative) session to get approvals. These things take time."
But Pargat Singh, hockey hero of yesteryear, insists "it’s about the profile of the athlete. Abhinav Bindra got his prize money at a grand function in Chandigarh within a week of winning the gold medal. That might not have happened if an athlete was poor, low-profile."
Singh, now director of the Punjab government’s Department of Sports, explains that it helps if a "medal-winner is media-savvy". If not, he says, "his good fortune gets caught in red tape. Babus look for excuses to question his/her credentials, they cite lack of funds, they question if he has already got a cash reward. But that obviously does not happen with a Harbhajan or a Yuvraj."
But what of lesser beings playing India’s golden game of cricket? Are less well-known cricketers victims of a tardy reward system? Perhaps. Four years ago, Maharashtra had announced a Rs 10 lakh cash prize each for Mumbai cricketers Ajit Agarkar, Rohit Sharma and team coach Lalchand Rajput after their T20 victory. They’ve only got half so far. Rajput told a newspaper recently that he was given the money in a rather unceremonious manner, and that the government did not even bother to explain what happened to the rest.
When TOI checked with the Maharashtra finance department, an official suggested "it must be a procedural problem".
Perhaps the process and the planning should be sorted out before India expresses the wish to become a sporting superpower? Then, many more successful sportsmen would deserve reward and expect it before the glow of victory fades.