Reward Ranji toppers, trim first-class teams
Remember Sakibul Gani? If the name doesn’t ring a bell a quick google check will reveal he is a world record holder. The Bihar batter is in the record books for the highest score on first-class debut. Four months back, the youngster made a sensational 341 against Mizoram in Ranji Trophy.
Today, he is forgotten. What’s more worrying is we might soon forget Ranji Trophy itself.
This season it was played in two parts like old Hindi films with an interval, the break forced by IPL which was allotted prime time, the two-month window from March end.
Ranji Trophy saw two world records besides Sakibul’s feat. In the quarter-final, nine Bengal batters scored half-centuries against Jharkhand, the first time this was accomplished in almost 250 years. Mumbai, champions 41 times, crushed Uttarakhand by 725 runs to make the last four—the victory margin unsurpassed anywhere in the world.
Sadly, the disturbing news is Ranji Trophy is almost a dinosaur, not quite extinct but threatened by irrelevance. In cricket’s commercially driven ecosystem, it’s position is no different than that of polyester clothing, black and white TV sets and landlines.
Players don’t want Ranji; their overwhelming preference is for IPL, which is shorter, less demanding and more rewarding. Young players choose a cricket format early in their careers.
Their verdict is clear, what excites them is white-ball cricket. On ‘days cricket’, as Ranji is described, the sun has set.
With good reason—the competing IPL is a more attractive pathway to the top. In the quest of riches/fame/glamour, IPL is a super convenient bypass whereas Ranji is the pot-holed and bumpy village mud track.
That is one reason players don’t want to turn up for Ranji. Wriddhiman Saha went into a massive sulk to justify skipping Ranji, but for IPL everyone is fit and available. Harsh fact: Top Indian stars and IPL players consider Ranji a waste of time.
Players nurse a grouse that Ranji performances aren’t given importance. The feeling stretches back to a previous era and persists with the likes of Paras Dogra and Jalaj Saxena. Whatever the reason, Ranji today is a side show, a blue chip stock which has plunged.
A devalued Ranji damages the structure of Indian cricket. First-class cricket is the foundation that supports the Test team, it is the load-bearing pillar while IPL is no more than an attractive arch above the main gate.
Without a strong Ranji structure it is difficult to produce quality players capable of performing overseas and winning matches for India.
Coach Ravi Shastri made this point when he said he does not remember a single T20 game. Shastri was India coach for seven years. For India to be a cricket leader, Ranji‘s neglect needs to be arrested and reversed.
Any plan to fix Ranji must look at the following:
Support quality
Revisit the decision to grant first-class status to teams not good enough to compete at that level. Giving each state a platform is noble but equating Mumbai with Manipur is bizarre.
There is a big difference in Sakib’s triple hundred and that (301*) which Sarfaraz Khan scored against UP.
The gap in quality is too wide, and the way out is easy: Ranji in two grades, only Division A with first-class status. Also, act tough on players who invent injuries or cite workload issues to avoid Ranji matches.
Show respect
Raise the Ranji winner’s prize money from ₹2 crore to at least ₹7 crore—the annual A Plus contract value of Rohit, Virat and Bumrah.
A team wins Ranji after playing 10 matches spread over 43 days and 3,870 overs. Also, at the end of each season announce an All Star Ranji 11, the best performers of the year. These players and the top-five batsmen/bowlers should be given ₹20 lakh each—equal to the minimum IPL contract.
Reward performers
Out of 1,000 Ranji players, about 150 have IPL contracts but the rest miss out on the lottery. For a fair distribution of wealth, fees for Ranji games should be raised and fixed, maybe ₹2 lakh a game. At present it is a complicated per day system linked to matches played by the player.
Contracts for players
Recent developments in Uttarakhand highlight the desperate need for providing domestic players a financial safety net— annual contracts on the lines of BCCI’s central contracts. Ranji players are entirely dependent on match fees handed out by BCCI but the deadly ‘conditions apply’ catch is they get paid only if selected.
Players deserve financial security and should be handsomely incentivised to commit themselves to the sport.
Surely, finding money to fund domestic contracts can’t be an issue. The approximate cost of covering every Ranji player will be less than what is earned from one IPL game.
Incidentally, even Pakistan has annual contracts for its domestic players.