The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a ‘Test Cricket Incentive Scheme’ on Saturday to help the financial growth of cricketers who prioritise Test cricket.
The scheme added an additional reward structure on top of the existing match fee for Test matches. India’s head coach Rahul Dravid, however, stressed on the fact that it was more of a reward from the Board and not an incentive.
“It is nice that the BCCI is recognising it…” Dravid said on Saturday.
“I think it is a reward, not an incentive. Looking at the guys who came in and played in this series, I think everyone wants to play Test cricket. It’s just a recognition of what you need to be able to do to survive and play in Test cricket. It’s only when you get here that you realise that sometimes it’s quite tough…”
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India thumped England 4-1 in a five-match series and with a bunch of youngsters like Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel rising to the occasion, it was really a dream outing for India.
“I really hope money is not going to be the incentive to play Test cricket. It’s just nice the hard work and how tough Test cricket can be is being recognised. So, I wouldn’t see it as an incentive to make people play Test cricket, I hope not,” Dravid, before adding with a smile, “I hope it never really comes to that…”
Lauding the efforts of Ravichandran Ashwin, who featured in his 100th Test and claimed nine wickets in the game, Dravid said, “It takes a special person to do what Ashwin has done, to play 100 Test matches. You go through a lot, and rightly so. You guys celebrated Ashwin today, and Jonny Bairstow, you’ve celebrated [Ben] Stokes a few games ago. All of you recognise how challenging the format is and what it takes to be able to have consistency and to be able to survive the test of time in this format…We don’t celebrate 100 T20s in the same way, do we?…”
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