The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is walking the talk on its stance regarding red-ball cricket, international as well as domestic, for contracted players. The board has terminated Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan's central contracts owing to their non-participation in Ranji Trophy, and is reportedly considering hiking the value of annual retainership contracts for red-ball cricketers to match the remuneration of lower, mid-level Indian Premier League (IPL) contracts. (More Cricket News)
The country's apex cricket governance body has been in talks with skipper Rohit Sharma, head coach Rahul Dravid and chief selector Ajit Agarkar on how to revive interest in red-ball cricket amongst players, according to a Times of India report. The annual player contracts list for 2024-25, which was released on Wednesday evening, did not include the value of various grades.
"The board has asked for recommendations from the Indian team management. They are taking a very aggressive approach towards maintaining the sanctity of the longest format of the game. It is imperative that players, who are committed to first-class cricket, are rewarded at a similar level as IPL cricket. That would mean that existing remuneration has to be multiplied," the report quoted a BCCI source as saying.
"The recommendations are on the lines of increasing the Test match and first-class fees by three times. The idea is that if a player plays the entire Ranji Trophy, he should be able to make around INR 75 lakh which matches an average IPL contract. It has also been suggested that if a player plays all Test matches in a year, he should be able to make INR 15 crore which is at par for any marquee IPL contract," the source went on to add as per the report.
As of now, a professional men's cricketer can earn about INR 25 lakh if he plays all 10 Ranji matches (seven group games, quarter-final, semi-final and final) in a season. The base price of a player in the IPL auctions is INR 20 lakh.
BCCI's four grades in retainership contracts were pegged at INR 7 crore, INR 5 crore, INR 3 crore and INR 1 crore.
"The board may not agree to increasing the remuneration by three times at one go but they are considering meeting the players at mid-point. Even that should be a hefty raise. This is why the board has not announced the value of contracts. The board will have to decide if it wants to raise the match fees or make specified contracts accordingly," the source was further quoted as saying in the report.
