adminLiam Brickhill
ZIMBABWE’S cricketers are better off than most Associate cricketers, but they still inhabit a different cricketing universe to that of the vaunted Indians.
Take, for instance, KL Rahul and Innocent Kaia.
They’re both 30-year-old, top-order batters, with ODI averages in the 40s.
When Kaia scored his maiden hundred against Bangladesh earlier this month, he mimicked Rahul’s shut-out-the-noise celebration.
Their lives off the field, however, could scarcely be more different.
Rahul, alone, has about as many followers on Instagram as there are people in Zimbabwe.
Sikandar Raza is Zimbabwe’s most popular cricketer, on and off social media.
His followers could just about fill the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Kaia’s would not fill one stand.
India’s cricketers count their paychecks in crores and millions, Zimbabweans in the thousands.
In terms of match fees, India’s players would earn about 10 times more than the amount the Zimbabweans are paid to play.
The life of an Indian cricket star, with its drip and shine and Lamborghinis and Balenciaga, appears to the average Zimbabwean cricketer as something from another planet.
Still, it’s not all about the money, is it?
But if we’re talking dollars and cents, it’s worth mentioning that you can watch the NPL for free, as you can any domestic cricket in Zimbabwe.
For internationals, your wallet would be US$1 lighter upon entrance, with charges going up by a few bucks for access to the more exclusive areas within the ground, such as the Centurion Pub at Harare Sports Club, or the Grandstand at Queens.
Fans, meanwhile, shelled out anything from US$140 to as much as US$650 to watch India play West Indies in Florida, earlier this month.
That seems like a very big amount of money to pay for watching a game.
It’s just one more sign of a widening inequality gap in international cricket – the game is becoming more, not less, stratified.
There’s also a price to pay for all that opulence.
Virat Kohli has spoken about the suffocating – and sometimes frightening – trappings of fame, and a Zimbabwean could never know the pressure that accompanies being at the head of a queue a billion people strong.
And, so it is that the Zimbabweans have something the Indians do not.
They are somewhat well known in the urban areas, but Zimbabwean cricketers get to live very normal lives.
On previous tours, visiting Indian journalists have been astonished by the access, the closeness, that Zimbabwe allows.
Yes, you can stand a couple of metres away from the nets while the players are in there.
Stick around after a net session or a game, and you’ll probably see a couple of the Zimbabweans ambling through the pub to play some pool or meet up with friends
Before the first ODI on India’s current trip, there were a couple of Zimbabwean fans (and journalists) sharing selfies snapped with India’s captain at Harare Sports Club.
There were no baying crowds behind them.
Just an empty field.
It’s all very laid back.
What is less likely to be laid back is the cricket.
There is pride at stake, and that’s something you can’t put a price on.
And what’s more, cricket is a great leveller – perhaps one of the greatest – and though the cricketing world revolves around an Indian team that burns with a solar brightness, if you’re in the right place at the right time, you’ll see the moon devour the sun.
Zimbabwe will know that even the most celebrated, and richest teams, can be eclipsed. – ESPNCricinfo
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter