T20 World Cup 2022: World Cup Over, Dutch-Zimbabweans Fight For Bread After Returning Home: Now it’s the turn of Sikandar Raja, Paul van Mikkeron, to return home. After the ‘happy hour’ of the fifteenth day, everyone will enter their own world. The fight for bread will start again.
T20 World Cup (T20 World Cup 2022) Netherlands and Zimbabwe have made an impression on the stage (Zimbabwe). Zimbabwe lost to Pakistan. The surprise of the ICC associate country Netherlands by knocking South Africa out of the tournament(Netherlands). That’s all you owe. Both the teams could not secure tickets to the semi-finals. Now it’s the turn of Sikandar Raja, Paul van Mikkeron, to return home. After the ‘happy hour’ of the fifteenth day, everyone will enter their own world. The fight for bread will start again. Someone’s office from ten to five, someone’s job is to deliver food from door to door all day long. Someone will reach the garage on foot. After wearing the old dirty clothes, someone will start cleaning the car! A life of uncertainty will begin again.
It may sound surprising but it is true. A few countries including India may think that national team cricketers are millionaires. It is a distant dream for cricketers from Netherlands, Zimbabwe. The Netherlands cricketers who ‘slaughtered’ the Proteas at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday have arrived in Australia for a few days off. The manager of the team returned to the country in the middle of the tournament because he was asked to join work from the office. Netherlands pacer Paul Van Meekeron said, “Our managers don’t get paid. One of them had to return home midway through the tournament. So another manager has to be arranged urgently. Team members Stephen Mabourg and N Teja work in a consultancy company. They have come to play the World Cup on vacation. These few days money will be deducted from their salary. They will return to work as soon as the tournament is over.”
Staying, eating, modern facilities in a five-star hotel in Australia seems like a dream for Zimbabwean cricketers. When you return home, you have to go back to your old life. There is only struggle in life. Struggle to run a family, earn a living. They beat Pakistan in a last-ball thriller last week. But there is no change in life off the field. A Zimbabwean cricketer, who did not want to be named, said, “I don’t want to take names. A colleague of mine works as a car wash. A delivery boy. Another one is engaged in selling sports equipment i.e. salesman.” When the series will be played later, no one knows. A series against Afghanistan is scheduled for later in the year. At that time, Afghan cricketers will be busy playing in various T20 leagues. So the series is indeterminate. This uncertainty has become part of the life of Zimbabwean cricket and cricketers. In 2018, the Zimbabwe Cricket Board was banned from international cricket by the ICC. Countries playing first-class cricket rarely send full-strength teams. The Zimbabwe Board’s income from media rights is limited. As an example, let us take India’s visit to Zimbabwe this year. Cricketers like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were not in the Indian team that toured Zimbabwe after six years. Reminiscing about the old days, a support staff said, “I remember before the cricketers joined the protests demanding pay. The Zimbabwe Cricket Board had no authority to provide cricketers with balls or water for practice. Children had to rely on others to pay their school fees.”
Most of the Netherlands team has young players. No one in the team is more than 28 years old. Because no one else plays cricket for the national team after getting a good job. New faces come. They also once got a job and left. Paul van Mikkeron worked as a part-time salesman or delivery boy for Uber Eats. Still doing that when not playing.
