‘If Ranji Trophy match fees are doubled or tripled, there will be fewer people pulling out,’ says Sunil Gavaskar

Gavaskar also suggested that the Ranji Trophy should be played between October and mid-December and should be followed by white-ball fixtures.

Ajit Agarkar (from left), Rahul Dravid, Mohinder Amarnath, Gundappa Viswanath, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Sanjay Manjrekar during the 25th anniversary celebration of the CHAMPS Foundation in Mumbai on Friday. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Sunil Gavaskar lauded the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) newly-announced ‘Test Cricket Incentive Scheme’, but also suggested that the match fee for Ranji Trophy should also be increased substantially. 

“That (Test scheme) is a wonderful thing by the BCCI to reward those who would be playing (the format), but I would also request the BCCI to ensure that the feeder to the Test team, which is the Ranji Trophy, is also looked after. (If) the Ranji Trophy fees can be doubled or tripled, certainly there will be a lot more people playing the Ranji Trophy,” Gavaskar said on the sidelines of the 25 ^th anniversary celebrations of the CHAMPS Foundation.

In 2021, the BCCI revised the match-fee structure to Rs. 40,000 per match-day (1 to 20 matches), Rs. 50,000 per match-day (21 to 40 matches), and Rs. 60,000 per match-day (40+ matches) for First-Class cricket.

“If the fees of playing a Ranji Trophy match is a good fee there will be less people pulling out for various reasons. They will all be wanting to play with the slab system — every 10 First Class matches you get that much more, so I would request the BCCI to look at that aspect as well,” Gavaskar said.

He also suggested that the Ranji Trophy should be played between October and mid-December and should be followed by white-ball fixtures. “My personal opinion is to have the Ranji Trophy from October to mid-December and then bring in the white-ball tournaments. That way, everybody will be available to play except for the ones featuring for India,” he said. 

“There will be no real excuse to pull out. With the one-dayers beginning from January, people who are in the IPL can have enough practice from then…”

The scheduling of the Ranji Trophy has been under scrutiny after Shardul Thakur called for longer breaks between the games to facilitate better recovery and preparation for players.

India’s head coach Rahul Dravid, who also attended the event on Friday, had earlier backed the India international’s statements and said that it is important to listen to the advice of the players and have a fresh look at the relevance of some of the competitions.

Gavaskar echoed similar sentiments. “That’s something that should be considered,” he said. “In the three-day gap, what happens is that there’s probably a day in between for travel. During travel, there’s no time to go to the physio and maybe take his help to get fit from a niggle. So, probably there should be a little bit of gap so that the player has got adequate time…”

During the event, which was attended by legends - Kapil Dev, Gundappa Viswanath, Mohinder Amarnath among others - Gavaskar also stated that Test cricket will survive.

“Test cricket will definitely be around. You might not have a five-Test match series between every country, only two or three might play five-tests,” he said. Even Viswanath echoed similar opinions and stated that there’s nothing like playing Test cricket for the country.