Cap on IPL fees for non-Ranji players will help franchises have better control

It was good to see Harbhajan Singh’s impassioned plea to Indian cricket team’s coach Anil Kumble to raise the fees for the Ranji Trophy players. It is something that I have been saying for quite sometime now but quite possibly because there were no current players making a noise about it, the matter was ignored and forgotten.

Now that Harbhajan, who has been playing on the domestic circuit since he lost form and was dropped from the Indian team and has seen for himself the total disregard for the Ranji Trophy players, brought the matter into the public domain — hopefully there will be an increase and revision in their fees.

That the Ranji fees have not been revised for almost 10 years is a blot indeed especially when less talented players get humungous amounts for playing in the IPL and are forgotten almost immediately after their ‘lucky break’. It is never easy to perform at the IPL if you have not had first class experience as most ‘one-season wonders’ are finding out

But what the heck in that one season of 16 days, they have made more money than the Ranji player makes in his whole career.

The Indian domestic player, if he plays all the games except the IPL, plays 81 days of cricket in all kinds of conditions.

This includes 47 days of the Ranji Trophy, five days of the Irani trophy, 13 days of the Duleep trophy, nine days of the Vijay Hazare trophy, four days of the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy and three days of the Deodhar trophy.

At 10,000 rupees a day, he gets take home of 8,000 and 10,000. I am happy to stand corrected on this and if the players are getting more, then its great but still it’s not in tune with the efforts that they put.

The BCCI has an arrangement where 26 per cent of its revenues go to the players. That is split into a huge share for the international men’s team, then a much smaller one for the women’s teams and junior teams and even smaller for the Ranji Trophy players. While there is little tampering that is done as far as the senior men’s team is concerned as it would become headline news on all communication mediums, the others are often fobbed off with some excuse that the BCCI did not make the money it was expecting because of this or that and so their fees have remained static and have not increased at all even though the subsidies given to the state associations have increased by crores.

They know that the Ranji players are not going to make a noise and even worse, there will be nobody in the mainstream media who will take up their cause. Worse still is that the players don’t always get their fees after every game but have to wait for months before the state associations release it. Very few state associations pay the players after every game.

No wonder the Ranji player feels like the orphan of Indian cricket despite often actually being out on the field for more days than the Indian cricket team. When he sees somebody who does not even play any other domestic cricket than the T20 tournament and get crores, then he is bound to question what is the fun in playing the format where there are no rewards nor any public appreciation for his efforts.

New cycle

The IPL new cycle will start from next year and I do believe there should be a restriction on what a non-Ranji trophy player gets as fees. Whatever the domestic players’ fees for playing 81 days of cricket, the uncapped and non-Ranji player who gets a lucky dip and is picked by a franchise should be capped at no more than one-and-half times what the domestic player gets.

This will help the franchises also to keep a control over their budgets but more importantly, send a message to the hard-working domestic player that his efforts are also being appreciated by the authorities.

If Harbhajan Singh’s letter strikes the right chord as it should and the Ranji player gets his due, then he will have won more hearts than he can ever imagine.

There is also an urgent need to look at doing something for the retired players — especially those over 75 years of age.

While some are in robust health even today, some others are struggling with theirs. The BCCI has been generously giving a monthly pension to them but that is not sufficient to take care of the medical bills that old age brings with it.

The current India players all of whom are super millionaires, without exception go overseas for their injury treatment at the BCCI cost even though the same if not better treatment is available in India. That is fine since they are the country’s pride and joy, but what about those who were the loyal servants of Indian cricket when there was hardly any money in the game?

Today when some need urgent medical attention, they struggle because they do not have the funds for it. If the BCCI can sanction the funds that worry will be off their heads as age advances.