Follow UsThe Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently introduced the ‘Test Cricket Incentive Scheme’ and ‘Fast Bowling contracts’ in a bid to prioritise Test cricket. However, at the same time, questions were asked about the viability of the Ranji Trophy.
There are surely many issues that need to be addressed, and Sunil Gavaskar has added one more on top of it, urging the board to double or triple the match fees so as to ensure that players have enough incentive to take part in the tournament.
"That is a wonderful thing by the BCCI to reward those who would be playing, but I would also request the BCCI to ensure that the feeder to the Test team, which is the Ranji Trophy, is also looked after. If the Ranji Trophy fees can be doubled or tripled, certainly there'll be a lot more people playing the Ranji Trophy and a lot fewer pullouts from the Ranji Trophy because if the fees of playing a Ranji Trophy match are a good fee, there will be fewer people pulling out for various reasons,” Gavaskar said on the sidelines of an event by CHAMPS Foundation.
"I think what Rahul Dravid said, when it was announced in Dharamsala that he would like to call it a reward. They will all be wanting to play with a slab system - every 10 first-class matches you get that much more so I would request the BCCI to look at that aspect as well.”
While the BCCI made it mandatory for the players to take part in domestic cricket, especially when they are not injured and not with the national team, a few players, including Shardul Thakur and Indian head coach Rahul Dravid, urged the BCCI to look into having a bigger gap in between Ranji matches. Gavaskar also concurred the same.
"In the three-day gap, what happens is that there's probably a day in between for travel. During travel, there's no time to visit the physio and maybe take his help to get fit from a niggle. So, there should probably be a little bit of a gap so that the player has got adequate time.
"My personal opinion is to have the Ranji Trophy from October to mid-December and then bring in the white-ball tournaments. That way, everybody will be available to play except for the ones featuring for India. There will be no real excuse to pull out. With the one-dayers beginning from January, people who are in the IPL can have enough practice from then."