Legendary Cricketer Sunil Gavaskar Proposes Tripling Ranji Trophy Player Compensation to Strengthen India's Domestic Cricket System

Sunil Gavaskar has encouraged the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to increase domestic cricketers' salaries, particularly first-class players. While applauding the BCCI's recent announcement of incentives for Test cricketers, the former India captain said -

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, 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, and a lot fewer pullouts from the Ranji Trophy, because if the fees of playing a Ranji Trophy match are good fee, there will be fewer people pulling out for various reasons.

Great incentives might lead to fewer withdrawals -

Gavaskar also agreed with Rahul Dravid that the BCCI's statement was more of a prize for playing red-ball cricket than an incentive. He remarked that if Ranji players are adequately compensated, there will be fewer withdrawals, particularly those like Ishan Kishan.

"I think what Rahul Dravid said when it was announced in Dharamsala, was that he would like to call it a reward. They will all be wanting to play with a 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 on the sidelines of an event by CHAMPS Foundation, which completed 25 years.

The cricketer-turned-commentator and columnist also endorsed the concept of lengthier breaks between Ranji games, which players from various teams have demanded. Gavaskar also expressed his confidence that Test cricket will survive.

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.

Test cricket will be around. You might not have a five-Test match series between every country; only two or three might play five Tests. Any tour now will be a mix of Tests, T20Is, and ODIs.