BCCI tripes per match incentive to Rs 45 lakh for playing red-ball format

NEW DELHI: Living up to its promise of giving highest priority to Test cricket, the BCCI has decided to give an incentive of Rs 45 lakh per game to all those who would play 75 per cent or more of the scheduled red-ball games in a particular season, Board secretary Jay Shah said on Saturday.

A Test player, who appears in a possible 10 Tests in a season will be richer by a whopping Rs 4.50 crore as incentive apart from a possible Rs 1.5 crore (15 lakh per game) in usual match fee.

The top cricketers also get an assured retainer fee from their annual central contracts.

“I am pleased to announce the initiation of the ‘Test Cricket Incentive Scheme’ for Senior Men, a step aimed at providing financial growth and stability to our esteemed athletes,” Shah stated on ‘X’.

“Commencing from the 2022-23 season, the ‘Test Cricket Incentive Scheme’ will serve as an additional reward structure on top of the existing match fee for Test matches, set at Rs 15 lakh,” he further stated.

The incentives will be retrospective and would factor in players, who were part of Test cricket during the 2022-23 season.

Dravid calls it ‘reward’ not ‘incentive’

Head coach Rahul Dravid welcomed the move from BCCI and termed it as a reward for playing the toughest format.

“Hope money is not going to be the incentive to play Test cricket. It is nice to see that it is a recognition that it is a hard format. Nice that BCCI is recognising that. It is a reward not an incentive,” Dravid said at the end of the 4-1 Test triumph over England in Dharamsala.

The decision was taken after some players like Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer and Deepak Chahar snubbed Ranji Trophy cricket to continue training with their IPL teams despite the Board’s diktat to prioritise red-ball cricket.

“Rohit and I select playing 11. Sometimes I don’t even know who is contracted and who is not. No one is out of the mix,” Dravid said when asked about Test future of Iyer and Kishan.