The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) 'Test Cricket Incentive Scheme' has given an idea to former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar to introduce the same concept in the Ranji Trophy as well. Gavaskar while appreciating BCCI's move to encourage Test cricket for players who are already playing to prioritise the format and to the youngsters who want to play for India, said that extending the same incentive or reward plan to Ranji Trophy will ensure less pull-outs and will only help the Indian domestic red-ball cricket to grow.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 25th-anniversary celebrations of his Foundation 'CHAMPS,' Gavaskar said, "I think what Rahul Dravid said, when it was announced in Dharamsala, that he would like to call it a reward. That is a wonderful thing by the BCCI to reward those who would be playing, but I would also request the BCCI to ensure that the feeder to the Test team, which is the Ranji Trophy, that is also looked after.
"(If) the Ranji Trophy fees can be doubled or tripled, certainly there'll be a lot more people playing the Ranji Trophy, (a) lot less pull outs from the Ranji Trophy, because 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 added.
Gavaskar further agreed with Shardul Thakur's point of increasing gap days between two Ranji Trophy matches as just three days including one for the travel for a 2-month-long tournament with back-to-back games can take a toll on the body while suggesting the BCCI to hold the premier domestic red-ball competition in October-December window rather than just before the IPL.
"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. 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," Gavaskar further added.
