India's Test Players Set For Pay Rise!

In a bid to make red ball cricket more rewarding for the players, the Board of Control for Cricket in India is considering a pay hike for the Indian Test players.

The BCCI is working towards redrafting the salary structure of the Test players in such a way that they get an additional reward apart from the annual retainer contract if they feature in all Test series in the year.

'For example, if someone plays all Test series in a calendar year, he should be rewarded additionally, apart from the annual retainer contract. This is to ensure that players turn out for more red ball cricket. This would be an additional perk for playing Test cricket,' a source told The Indian Express newspaper.

Currently, India's players are paid 15 lakh (Rs 1.5 million) as match fees per Test, Rs 6 lakh (Rs 600,000) for an ODI and Rs 3 lakh (Rs 300,000) for a T20 international.

The BCCI's latest move is directed to prevent players like Ishan Kishan from avoiding red ball cricket in a bid to preserve themselves for the cash-rich IPL.

Kishan ignored the team management's plea to play Ranji Trophy matches for Jharkhand to put himself back in contention for the Test series against England after he had opted out of the Test series in South Africa in December citing mental fatigue. He has been training separately to prepare himself for IPL 2024 where he will represent the Mumbai Indians.

Another player who has invited the wrath of the BCCI and the national selectors is Shreyas Iyer, who after getting dropped for the last three Tests against England, skipped Mumbai's Ranji Trophy quarter-final match against Baroda.

Shreyas informed the Mumbai Cricket Association that he was unavailable for the match because of back pain. However, Nitin Patel, the head of sports science and medicine at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, in an e-mail to BCCI selectors, confirmed that Iyer was 'fit' to play.

• England in India, 2024