Nathan Bracken recently spoke about his predicament. The former Australian pace bowler is in a potentially ruining legal battle with Cricket Australia (CA) over compensation for an injury he picked up while still a player. Shiamak Unwalla feels that CA ought to hang their head in shame.
Nathan Bracken is a World Cup winner. Nathan Bracken was once the best bowler in the world. Nathan Bracken took five wickets in a One-Day International (ODI) where a record 434 was chased down. Nathan Bracken was No. 1 in ICC rankings in both ODIs and Twenty20 Internationals. And today, Nathan Bracken walks with a limp — but he is crippled more by Cricket Australia. READ: Nathan Bracken: Australia’s dependable ODI seamer in the 2000s
In a recent interview with Sydney Morning Herald, Bracken said: “I cannot sit and watch a whole World Cup game. I’ll watch bits and pieces, but then I leave the room…because I can’t watch anymore. It’s too painful.” What makes watching a game he played for eight years so painful, one might wonder. The answer lies with Cricket Australia. READ: Cricket Australia’s handling of bowling arsenal needs introspection
Bracken had picked up a career-ending knee injury which forced him to retire prematurely in 2009. He played on for New South Wales till early 2010 before quitting the game for good. When he approached CA for some form of compensation, he got a rude awakening.
“I didn’t question it (compensation). I just expected it. That’s how it is, right? If you get hurt doing something at work, it’s all good because there is a system in place to assist you. But there wasn’t even as much as a discussion. I pretty much got laughed out of the room.”
Here is a country that takes pride in calling itself a sporting nation. Their cricket board “pretty much laughed” at Bracken when he asked for financial help following an injury he picked up while playing for his country.
For all the numerous evils of The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), they remain a cricket board that takes excellent care of past players. Since 2005, BCCI has implemented a pension scheme for not only Test cricketers but also those who played First Class cricket. Though BCCI might be accused of being corrupt and boisterous, they can’t be accused of being tight-fisted.
Cricket Australia, on the other hand, have no system in place to help cricketers who legitimately picked up injuries during their playing days. Bracken is not the only one who has faced such a parsimonious reaction from CA. Stuart MacGill, the former leg-spinner, has reportedly sued Cricket Australia for more than $2.5 million as he claims they failed to compensate him for injury payments after his Test retirement in 2008.
For Bracken though, a legal battle could be potentially crippling. If he does not win the case his family will lose everything. Haley Rich-Bracken, Nathan’s wife, said: “We had a property we were going to build a house on when Nathan retired…we’ve sold that. We’ve sold two cars to consolidate. Now we face losing our house out of the court case.”
What if tomorrow, God forbid, Mitchell Starc breaks his bowling arm and has to retire from all forms of cricket? What will his legacy be other than one potential Man of the Tournament World Cup performance? Not much, if Cricket Australia has a say in it. And Starc even has the benefit of a productive Indian Premier League (IPL) stint behind him; something Bracken did not have the benefit of.
Is this what Cricket Australia stands for? Is this the example they want to set, being a member of “The Big Three” of the game’s global administration? Hang your head, Cricket Australia. Nathan Bracken deserves better!
(Shiamak Unwalla, a reporter with CricketCountry, is a self-confessed Sci-Fi geek and Cricket fanatic. His Twitter handle is @ShiamakUnwalla)
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