Sourav Ganguly wants pay hike for Indian domestic players

What’s the story?

Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has urged the Board of Control for Cricket in India to consider a hike in the remuneration for local Indian players plying their trade in the domestic setup in the country.

Ganguly, who is also the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) reportedly put forward this plea during the BCCI technical committee meeting in Kolkata on Tuesday.

“Ganguly enquired as to what all issues were raised at Ranji Captain and Coaches’ Conclave in Mumbai. He was informed that all captains spoke about match fee hike in the domestic tournament which has been an issue,” a BCCI technical committee member was as quoted by the PTI.

The Details

The pay structure for the domestic players has been in the limelight for quite some time now and Ganguly wanted it to be revised when he came to know that the Indian players are paid Rs 10 lakhs for a season.

It was also learnt that Ganguly backed up his plea with the information that all domestic players do not have a job to fall back upon and that their pay structure needs to be hiked.

This proposal was agreed upon by the other members and it was understood that the long due pay hike could finally see the light of the day.

In case you didn’t know...

Earlier in the year, Harbhajan Singh had written a letter to then head Indian coach, Anil Kumble and had attracted his attention to the poor pay structure in the domestic setup.

Following this letter, Kumble did take up this issue, but then this issue was not part of his vision document which he presented when he took over as the role of the Indian head coach.

The top brass of the Indian cricketers draws a hefty salary along with few other players who have a lucrative IPL contract. However, the average domestic player gets Rs 1.5 lakhs for every Ranji or Duleep Trophy game.

What's next?

As the other members have also seem to be on the same page along with Sourav Ganguly, the domestic players could finally hear some positive news ahead of the Indian domestic season.

Author's Take

The demand for a pay-hike is not something very outlandish as compared to the other cricketing boards around the world, the Indian players still are a distant second when it comes down to remuneration.

With the BCCI expected to earn big from the IPL contracts, it is only natural to expect them to pump some of the money into the domestic setup.