I found the video on youtube. It's from an Indian News company so it's all in Hindi. Unable to translate, but the blurb about it is that Ray is a shop owner who also fixes ACs to help him with income.
To be honest, it's not the most far fetched thing. I can't imagine these guys got paid overly well as pros, particularly during the period he played, and the economy in the country is so shit, that even if they did get a fair chunk of money, chances are it would have devalued quickly.
Even if a player was on 10k a month gross, thats probably 7k after deductions, if you're trying to raise a family and send kids to private schools you're not getting much change out of 6k. That leaves savings of 1k. The day you quit cricket you need a job and you've probably got limited other skills and your next job is not paying that. At 8k we're talking about 3 players at that level. What about the other zim players on less than half of that? More than half the Zim players probably don't even own a car, let alone a house.
What about the franchise players on half of that again and for only 5 months of the year?
Just the food bill for a family of 5 if you eat western food is close to 2k. Less than half a supermarket trolley is $300. Food here is double the cost of SA and 3 to 4 times more expensive than UK.
I actually have no idea how people survive here. If you're not hustling you're sinking.
If you could offer the franchise players a 9 to 5 job that earned them 3k a month 12 months of the year, domestic cricket would cease to exist that same day.
Groundsmen are probably on $150 a month, similar salaries to government teachers and junior doctors, take off $2 a day for transport and they're surviving on $3 a day and most are married with kids. It is one of life's mysteries.
So in order to live in the leafy suburbs, send 3 kids to private schools, own your own house and have two decent vehicles and live moderately you'd need to be the highest paid cricketer in Zimbabwe. There were no mortgages, hire purchase plans etc etc here. Just recently theyve started Nostra mortgages but you have to be earning big dollars to qualify. You pay cash. Just to put a family on a decent offshore medical aid (and you'd be a fool not to if you can afford it) is 10k a year.
Zim is an extremely difficult place to live half decently.