The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has continued with its measures to protect Test cricket in particular and red ball cricket in general by announcing incentives for those playing the longest format of the game in India. In an unprecedented decision, Jay Shah announced that those part of the Test squads will be incentivised, so much so that even the non-playing members too will benefit from the newly announced scheme.
"The move is to encourage and protect Test cricket," Shah told Cricbuzz after India completed a 4-1 win over England in Dharamsala on Saturday afternoon. "Even the non-playing members of the squad will benefit from the scheme," the BCCI secretary added.
The move received instant commendation with Kevin Pietersen applauding the move. "Highly commendable that @JayShah is doing his utmost to protect Test Cricket! We need powerful leaders to stand up for Test Cricket like this! (sic)," the former England captain said in a social media post.
As per rewards announced by Shah, those part of the playing XI in more than 50 per cent of the Test matches in a year, will be entitled for Rs 30 lakh incentive. The non-playing member will be entitled for Rs 15 lakh per match. Those playing 75 percent of Tests in a year, will be awarded Rs 45 lakh per game. The non-playing members will earn half of that amount, which is Rs 22.5 lakh. This is, over and above, Rs 15 lakh match fee a player earns from a Test.
The initiative is in continuity with the BCCI decision to take a serious view of those who are defaulting on red ball cricket in domestic cricket. The BCCI denied central contracts to players like Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer, who were found to be avoiding domestic red ball cricket (Ranji Trophy).
The BCCI decision comes at a time when the long format is losing its primacy in other cricket playing nations. Cricket South Africa, for instance, sent an experimental third string team for an away Test series in New Zealand recently.
Rahul Dravid, India coach, however, regretted that the BCCI had to announce rewards to protect Test cricket. He said he thought the BCCI announcement is a reward (honour) rather than an incentive (inducement).
"It is nice that the BCCI is recognizing it... I think it is a reward, not an incentive," the India coach said after the Dharamsala Test. "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 and it is not easy but it is extremely satisfying. In especially a series like this (the just-concluded five-Test series against England) and Test matches we've seen in the last 4-5 months, if they are well supported and well documented by people like you, I am sure that there will be a lot of people still wanting to play test cricket," Dravid told the post match media conference.
"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. I hope it never really comes to that. And it takes a special person to do what (R) 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. Because I think all of you recognize 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?," Dravid, who has played 164 Tests, said.
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