Sunil Gavaskar urges BCCI to increase remuneration to make Ranji Trophy attractive

After the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) increased remuneration for Test cricketers, former skipper Sunil Gavaskar has asked the board to look at an upgrade in the compensation package for domestic players. Gavaskar said that it has become necessary to implement a central contract system that would then obligate players to represent their domestic teams when fit.

In recent times, there has been a trend with players prioritising the Indian Premier League (IPL) over Ranji Trophy matches and missing first-class games to minimise the risk of injury or maintain optimal fitness for the T20 league. As per Gavaskar, apart from the financial incentives and contractual obligations, there needs to be a tweak made to the scheduling adjustments that would ensure greater participation in domestic first-class cricket.

Gavaskar also highlighted the massive gulf in payment when it comes to playing domestic cricket and the different leagues around the country. “Today the players from Mumbai and Vidarbha who played every single (Ranji) game, including the final, will end up getting around 15 lakh for about 40 days of cricket. When you see that a player playing a tennis-ball league is getting almost twice that amount for less than a week’s work, you can see why the Ranji Trophy is not attractive for some players,” Gavaskar said as per The Indian Express.

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There have also been instances when key players have skipped Ranji Trophy fixtures ahead of the IPL, either by presenting medical certificates from franchises or not even informing their state units about their unavailability. State teams have also highlighted the drop in intensity among certain players towards the latter stages of the Ranji campaign.

“While nobody can be forced to play, if a player is good enough to be picked for his state Ranji Trophy team and does not have an injury certified by the state association physios and doctors, the state association should withhold the NOC to play IPL,” Gavaskar further added.

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There have been calls made for the introduction of domestic contracts and when former India captain Sourav Ganguly took over as BCCI president, he did express support for this initiative.