BCCI forms three-member committee of Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Ajit Agarkar to improve domestic cricket

The decision was taken at BCCI’s Apex Council meeting on Monday (Mar 18) where concerns were raised about the challenges domestic cricket was facing in the country.

“There were a lot of issues that cropped up during the conduct of men’s domestic cricket, with a prominent problem being that a lot of games in north India, particularly during the Ranji Trophy, were washed out or heavily curtailed due to bad weather in December-January,” a source was quoted as saying by the publication.

“Dravid, Laxman and Agarkar have been asked to give their suggestions to improve men’s domestic cricket,” it added.

Focus on domestic cricket

Notably, in recent months, BCCI has given additional focus on strengthening the domestic cricket setup in the country. The senior national team players have been advised to go back to the Ranji Trophy or other domestic tournaments when they are not playing for the country.

The likes of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer missed out on central contracts after they allegedly refused to play domestic cricket.

Former Indian captain and 1983 World Cup winner Sunil Gavaskar recently lauded the BCCI for announcing the incentive scheme for players playing 75 per cent of India’s Tests both home and away.

Gavaskar added that a similar incentive scheme could be launched for domestic cricket which would automatically increase the participation and quality.

“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, that is also looked after,” said Gavaskar.

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

“(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 less pull outs from the Ranji Trophy, because if the fees of playing a Ranji Trophy match is a good fee there will be less people pulling out for various reasons,” he added.

The former top-order batter also urged 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.