Ranji Trophy teams face problem with demonetization of higher currency denominations

The Indian team managed to save the Rajkot Test as skipper Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja saw them through while England had managed to force them down on the knees 6 wickets down. But the Test match isn’t all that the cricketers are concerned about saving, with the current demonetization scenario in the country, they also have to save the smaller denominations of notes they have in hand.

While a lot of domestic teams and players currently involved in the Ranji Trophy are facing a lot of problems because of it, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had paid the players as well as the support staff their Daily Allowance in advance before the start and so they don’t really have to worry about many things of course except the English team ahead of the second Test.

BCCI Secretary Ajay Shirke was quoted by the Indian Express saying, “Indian team players and support staff have been paid their full DA in advance, before the series. So there shouldn’t be any problem. As for England, they have agreed to make their own arrangements and will take care of it,”

Two teams possibly worst hit by the withdrawal of the 1000 and 500 rupees denominations are Goa and Vidarbha who are playing their respective matches in Mumbai and Kolkata. Goa is playing against Kerala at the Brabourne Stadium, are staying in a hotel that serves them complimentary breakfast but no other meal. The players thus are ordering takeaway food from restaurants around.

Goa coach Prakash Mayekar said, “Even if we order, we need change for Rs 500 or Rs 1,000. Somehow we are managing it. Few players have gone out and paid by cards. But it’s tough to go out each day just to pick up food,”

“We really don’t have change as the daily allowance we get is Rs 1,000. Last night I requested my manager and he arranged for the change. But we can’t just keep asking our manager to do that every day,” he added.

The Vidharbha side is in a similar situation and they sought help from the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), the hosts for the game but with the scarcity of smaller denomination of currency in circulation the CAB is in a similar fix and are not really able to help either. Team manager Kishore Wakode said, “We had been carrying our allowance for the first four matches. Now it’s gone. The problem is that even the CAB is complaining about not having enough currency notes to accommodate our request, which is understandable. So we will have to try and arrange for something,”

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Defending champions Mumbai are in Mysuru playing Uttar Pradesh and the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has asked the players to order food from room-service and bill it to their rooms which will be reimbursed later by the association. “We have told them that we will settle the bills later and say if some of them are keen on ordering from outside they can go ahead. We will reimburse that amount later into their accounts,” says MCA joint secretary Unmesh Khanvilkar.

“We don’t want our players to go stand in queues to exchange notes. Some of them are very well-known and it could cause a security hassle,” he added.

Tamil Nadu skipper Abhinav Mukund said, “The TNCA has made sure that the full-meal buffet is on the house as far as we are concerned. We still aren’t sure if it’ll be directly debited to the account,”

The last round match for Bengal at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium was called off and thus the players returned the DA to the manager which is now being used by Manoj Tiwary & Co. “The players had returned the money to the manager after the match was called off. We have 15 players and eight support staff in the Bengal team and DA per individual is Rs 1500. We will also credit their DA to their respective bank accounts,” CAB joint-secretary Avishek Dalmiya was quoted saying.