Team India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin shared his thoughts on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) making playing domestic cricket mandatory for the players. Recently, players skipping domestic matches has sparked a debate across the country.
The BCCI has asked the players who are not part of the Indian team to mandatorily play domestic cricket. It is believed that the board feels some players are prioritizing shorter formats of cricket. This has resulted in them skipping the Ranji Trophy matches in the recently concluded 2023-24 season. The BCCI recently left out Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer from the central contracts, for missing domestic matches. Sharing his thoughts on the debate, Ravichandran Ashwin said in an interview for the Indian Express,
“What we must understand here is the message being conveyed by the organisational body here, it said we are prioritising Test cricket, IPL is not everything as far as we are concerned. They are saying Test cricket is of paramount importance, we are going to promote it and we expect people eligible to play this format. In my view, they are making all the right noises.”
It is the player’s choice: Ravichandran Ashwin
The BCCI also recently announced incentives for the Test players. Those who play 75 per cent of India’s Tests in a season will earn Rs 45 lakh per Test. Meanwhile, those who play 50 to 75 per cent of Tests will earn Rs 30 lakh. This is in addition to the match fee of Rs 15 lakh.
Ashwin in his interview further added that it is a player’s choice, which format they should prioritize for themselves. He said,
“At the same time, whether a cricketer wants to do all the 12 months, or only want to do the two months or whether they want to be relevant playing T20 cricket and one-day cricket and do not want to be playing Test cricket, is their choice.”
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