Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar on Friday urged the BCCI to implement the recently launched incentive scheme for Tests in domestic cricket, saying it would encourage more players to participate and have fewer withdrawals. The BCCI announced its incentive policy immediately after the conclusion of the five-Test series against England, while also mentioning the list of players who have been awarded contracts for the period from October 2023 to September 2024. According to the announcement, those who received 75 per One cent of the Indian Tests, both home and away, could fetch Rs 60 lakh per match.
“I think what Rahul Dravid said, when it was announced in Dharamsala, that he would like to call it a reward,” Gavaskar told the media on the sidelines at an event to mark the completion of 25 years of The Champs Foundation.
“That is a great thing from the BCCI to reward those who would play, but I would also ask the BCCI to ensure that the feeder of the Test team which is the Ranji Trophy is also taken care of.
“(If) the cost of the Ranji Trophy can be doubled or tripled, there will certainly be a lot more people playing the Ranji Trophy, (and) a lot less people withdrawing from the Ranji Trophy, because if the cost of playing of a Ranji Trophy match is good compensation, fewer people will drop out for various reasons.
“They will all want to play the slab system. Every 10 first-class matches you get so much more, so I would ask the BCCI to look at that aspect as well.”
The legendary batsman welcomed the recent emphasis shown by the Indian cricket board to get more frontline players participating in domestic cricket.
“It's something that everyone is aware of. It's something that every cricketer should look up – domestic cricket is basically how they came into being. If they hadn't started at the domestic cricket level, whether it was domestic T20, domestic one-day tournament or the Ranji Trophy, they wouldn't be where they are,” Gavaskar said.
“There are very few cricketers who have not actually played domestic cricket, they have always played some domestic cricket, it could be junior cricket, or U-19 cricket or something like that. That has to be something that every cricketer should never forget .”
Gavaskar also urged the BCCI to look at the scheduling of the Ranji Trophy, which ran for just over two months, from January 5 to March 14 this year.
More importantly, with a three-day break between most matches, the scheduling was difficult for the players.
It is something that Indian all-rounder Shardul Thakur and Tamil Nadu skipper R Sai Kishore also spoke about, warning that players across the countries will get injured if the fixture list is not changed.
“That's (revisiting the schedule) something that has to be taken into account because you have to have a situation… What happens during the three-day period is that there's probably a day in between when you travel” , Gavaskar said.
“When traveling there is no time to go to the physio and perhaps seek his help to get fit again, so there probably needs to be a little bit of space so that the player gets enough time,” he added.
Gavaskar said the Ranji Trophy should be played from October to mid-December, followed by the white-ball competitions.
“That way, everyone will be available to play, except those who play for India. There will be no real excuse to withdraw. With the one-day matches starting from January, people who are in the IPL will be able to get enough practice from then on .”
Gavaskar also said that Test cricket will continue to survive.
“Test cricket will definitely be there. You may not have five-Test match series between each country, only two or three can play five-Tests. Every tour will now be a mix of Tests, T20Is and ODIs,” he said.
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