Sunil Gavaskar urges BCCI to implement ‘incentive scheme’ in Ranji Trophy to motivate players

Earlier, the BCCI announced an incentive scheme for all those who will appear in 75% of Tests in a season by paying them an extra INR 45 lakhs per game (outside of their designated match fee), while those playing from 50-75% matches will pocked INR 30 lakhs.

“That is a wonderful thing by the BCCI to reward those who would be playing [Test cricket]. 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,” Gavaskar said on the sidelines of an event in Mumbai on Friday.

Given the pay breakdown in India’s domestic tournaments, a player earns INR 2 lakhs for a Ranji game. If he plays each match, and his team qualifies for the finals, it adds up to 10 games, meaning a player can earn a maximum of INR 20 lakhs (equivalent to the lowest base price for a player in the IPL). Besides, the match fee in the Vijay Hazare Trophy is INR 50,000, dropping to INR 17,500 in Syed Mushtaq Ali.

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“[If your team doesn’t qualify for the knockouts], your whole year’s earnings are around 20 lakh, which is like the base price in the IPL. If there are proper contracts, then players will feel more motivated to play red-ball cricket,” an unnamed domestic player said, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

Speaking on the same lines, Gavaskar said the BCCI must consider increasing the player fees by two or three folds to ensure financial security for all, motivating them to prefer the Ranji Trophy over franchise-based T20 cricket.

“If the Ranji Trophy fee can be doubled or tripled, certainly there will be a lot more people playing the Ranji Trophy, [and a] lot less pullouts. They will all be wanting to play with the slab system – [if] every ten first-class matches you get that much more – so I would request the BCCI to look at that aspect as well.”

Better scheduling will help the motive

Gavaskar touched upon a different aspect of how better scheduling can help BCCI achieve their motive.

The former top-order batter asked BCCI to look into the growing concern of the short gap between Ranji games and even suggested Ranji to be the first of three tournaments to be played and not the last to ensure everyone is available and no one opts to skip it.

As things stand, the Ranji Trophy is the last competition in the domestic calendar.

“That way, everybody will be available to play [the Ranji Trophy], 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 them,” Gavaskar said.

Meanwhile, Mumbai recently won their record 42nd Ranji Trophy title, beating Vidarbha in the final in Wankhede.