The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is currently not happy with some Indian cricketers as they are not playing in domestic cricket despite repeated reminders from the Indian head coach Rahul Dravid and the team management.
This is happening because these players don’t want to take any chance of getting injured ahead of the IPL 2024 which is going to start from 22 March and they are also preparing for the tournament on their own.
In order to increase the interest of players in test format, the BCCI has decided to increase the fees of the players who will play test matches. As per the reports, an additional bonus will be paid to all the players who will represent the country in all the test matches and this policy will be implemented after the IPL 2024 gets over.
A BCCI source has revealed that if a player plays all the test series in a calendar year, that player will be rewarded additionally along with the fees of annual retention. The source further says that it is being done in order to motivate the players to come out and play more red-ball cricket and this additional payment will be like a perk for playing test cricket.
As of now, the BCCI pays Rs. 3 lakh for T20 cricket, Rs. 6 lakh for ODIs and Rs. 15 lakh for test matches. Earlier, the BCCI secretary Jay Shah also gave a warning to the centrally contracted and India “A” cricketers as per which they will have to face severe consequences if they prefer the IPL over domestic cricket because domestic cricket is the foundation of the Indian cricket system.
That is a good move but will it work? What do you say?