India’s Test cap has just been made more valuable. For India’s budding talents, Test cricket will now be a format to dream for.
Realising that playing Test cricket needed to be incentivised in the age of the financially lucrative IPL, the BCCI has ensured that those giving primacy to traditional multi-day cricket get high rewards.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah announced on ‘X’ the initiation of the ‘Test Cricket Incentive Scheme for Senior Men,’ commencing from the 2022-23 season. As per this scheme, those players who play seven or more Tests (assuming that there are nine Tests in a season) will earn an additional Rs 45,00,000 per match. This effectively means that if a player has featured/features in all the nine Tests in a season, he will receive a fee of Rs 60,00,000 per match - £540,000 overall.
Basically, those players who feature in, or are a part of the squad for 75% of the Tests that India play in a season, will receive Rs 60,00,000 per match. Those who play in five to six Tests in a season stand to earn an additional Rs 30,00,000 per match. Alternatively, those players who feature in less than roughly less than 50% of Tests in a season, will not be eligible for the benefits. Those players who aren’t a part of the playing XI, but are part of the squad, will receive 50 per cent of the sum the playing XI will receive.
