In December 1996, a few months after Sachin Tendulkar had signed the first multi-million-dollar deal in the history of Indian sport, Tom Cruise, in the film Jerry Maguire, uttered the lines that have become the credo of a new generation of athletes and agents - "Show me the money".
Perhaps now, as we sift through the wreckage of India's worst cricket tour since the misadventure in Australia in 1999/2000, it is time we talked about the money.
When players are accused, often with no evidence to prove it, of putting personal gain before national interest, it makes sense to crunch the numbers.
Last November, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a new payment structure for a select group of 24 players.
The top nine, including MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar, were given a retainer of 10 million rupees (Dh804,000). The B and C-list players were offered 5m and 2.5m respectively.
Match fees were fixed at 700,000 rupees for a Test, 400,000 for a one-day international (ODI) and 200,000 for a Twenty20 game.
In 2011, Dhoni has played seven Tests, 14 ODIs and one T20 international.
Including the retainer, he has banked 20.7m rupees by playing for India. That's for 50 days of work.
The Chennai Super Kings retained the same individual before the Indian Premier League's player auction in 2011.
We have yet to see transparent accounts from IPL franchises, but according to auction rules, Chennai would have had to pay US$1.8m (Dh6.6m, 81.4m rupees) to hold on to Dhoni.
Given that Gautam Gambhir subsequently went from Delhi to Kolkata for $2.4m, it is safe to assume that the more marketable Dhoni was paid extra sweeteners to stay in canary yellow.
In effect, for 16 days of IPL work, the man who captains the national team in all three formats of the game took home at least four times as much money as he got for playing for India.
Does that matter? Of course it does, to performers with limited time at the top. Remember Ashley Cole having a fit in his car when he heard of Arsenal's "derisory" offer of £55,000 (Dh363,400) a week?
Let's put Dhoni's earnings into some perspective.
In March last year, England's top cricket players refused to sign central contracts because they felt - to quote from the Daily Mail newspaper - "undervalued in comparison with their Australian counterparts".
The contracts they turned down were believed to be worth between £120,000 and £450,000.
Australia's leading players make more than a million dollars a year from their Cricket Australia contracts.
So, let's get this right. The captain of a team representing the richest cricket board in the world has a contract about as lucrative as one given to a fairly junior player in England or Australia.
Let's not confuse the issue by bringing in factors like cost of living and taxes.
Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure did not go to Manchester City to enjoy the weather in the north west of England.
City were prepared to pay them more than either Atletico Madrid or Barcelona.
Toure, an Ivorian, will most likely never win the highest honour in his sport, the World Cup, and he can't even dream of the kind of popularity that Dhoni enjoys. Yet, he banks more than the cricketer every week.
After he blamed the IPL for India's pathetic defence of the World T20 in England in 2009, Gary Kirsten, the then coach, was asked about the possibility of international players skipping the league in future.
"I've seen that happen in other sports," he said. "I know in South Africa they do that in rugby union. Maybe that's something to think of in the future. Whether it is possible, we don't know."
Some of the more powerful figures on the board quietly told him to mind his own business.
The BCCI was after all poacher and gamekeeper - the main stakeholders in the IPL and also responsible for doing what was best for the national team.
It is hard to think of a more flagrant conflict of interest in all of sport.
Asking players to forego the IPL is as unrealistic as asking a journalist not to write for a magazine that pays him five times as much for every word he writes.
They could only contemplate doing that if the retainers they were on were lucrative enough for them not to care.
If Mitchell Johnson can prioritise representing Australia above the IPL or the Big Bash, it is because his central contract gives him that security.
Ishant Sharma's first IPL deal, signed when he was 19 years old, was worth $900,000 for the 14 games.
Every over he bowled brought him $16,000, roughly what he makes these days for five days of toil in India colours.
And the board seriously expects him to regard Test cricket as the pinnacle of the game?
Jerry Maguire needs to have a word.
sports@thenational.ae
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
Key figures in the life of the fort
Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa (ruled 1761-1793) Built Qasr Al Hosn as a watchtower to guard over the only freshwater well on Abu Dhabi island.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab (ruled 1793-1816) Expanded the tower into a small fort and transferred his ruling place of residence from Liwa Oasis to the fort on the island.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Shakhbut (ruled 1818-1833) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further as Abu Dhabi grew from a small village of palm huts to a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Shakhbut (ruled 1833-1845) Repaired and fortified the fort.
Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon (ruled 1845-1855) Turned Qasr Al Hosn into a strong two-storied structure.
Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa (ruled 1855-1909) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further to reflect the emirate's increasing prominence.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan (ruled 1928-1966) Renovated and enlarged Qasr Al Hosn, adding a decorative arch and two new villas.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (ruled 1966-2004) Moved the royal residence to Al Manhal palace and kept his diwan at Qasr Al Hosn.
Sources: Jayanti Maitra, www.adach.ae
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Europe’s rearming plan
- Suspend strict budget rules to allow member countries to step up defence spending
- Create new "instrument" providing €150 billion of loans to member countries for defence investment
- Use the existing EU budget to direct more funds towards defence-related investment
- Engage the bloc's European Investment Bank to drop limits on lending to defence firms
- Create a savings and investments union to help companies access capital
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
Everything Now
Arcade Fire
(Columbia Records)
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer
Christopher Celenza,
Reaktion Books
Company%20Profile
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TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.