Team India clinched an emphatic innings and 64-run victory over England in the Dharamshala Test. With this victory, India has seized control of the test series with a 4-1 lead. Heeding to this historical win, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has taken a major step by launching the 'Test Cricket Incentive Scheme'. This scheme will greatly benefit players who represent India in test matches, giving them a financial boost on top of their match fees.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah announced the scheme with excitement, "I am thrilled to unveil the 'Test Cricket Incentive Scheme' for our men's team. Its objective is to provide our players with financial growth and stability. Effective from the 2022-23 season, it will serve as an additional reward structure over the current match fee of 15 lakh rupees for test matches."
The Details of Player Benefits
Indian cricketers currently earn a fee of 15 lakh rupees per test match, but with this incentive, they stand to gain more. According to the conditions set by the BCCI, if any Indian player participates in more than 75% of the test matches in a season (7 or more), they will receive an incentive of 45 lakh rupees per match. Those outside the playing-11 will receive 22.5 lakh rupees. For playing around 50% of the matches (about five to six), a player will receive 30 lakh rupees per match, while those outside playing-11 will get 15 lakh rupees per match. However, if a player plays in less than 50% of test matches in a season (less than four in a nine-match season), they will not receive any incentive.
Recently, BCCI also released the central contract list. Notably, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan failed to secure their spot. Both players were seemingly penalized for not participating in domestic cricket. Ishan had opted out from a tour of South Africa citing mental fatigue, while Shreyas had stayed away from the Ranji Trophy citing a back injury, although he later played for Mumbai.
Central Contract Players (October 2023 to September 2024):
Grade A+:
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravindra Jadeja.
Grade A:
R Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Mohammad Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, and Hardik Pandya.
Grade B:
Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Grade C:
Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, and Rajat Patidar.
