As an alternative, the staggering hike in rewards for Take a look at regulars needs to be seen as an acknowledgment of the immense rigours and challenges of the red-ball format, he insisted.
“I actually hope cash shouldn’t be going to be the motivation to play Take a look at cricket,” Dravid stated. “It is simply good that the arduous work – and the way powerful Take a look at cricket could be – is being acknowledged. I would not see it as an incentive to make individuals play Take a look at cricket. I hope not. I hope it by no means actually involves that. It is in all probability a recognition that it’s a powerful format.
“It takes a particular particular person to do what Ashwin has completed, play 100 Checks. All of you acknowledge how difficult the format is and what it takes to have the ability to have consistency and survive the take a look at of time on this format. We do not have fun 100 T20Is the identical manner, will we? It is good that the BCCI is recognizing it. It’s a reward, not an incentive. I am positive there might be lots of people nonetheless eager to play Take a look at cricket.”
The BCCI initiative comes within the wake of a number of main cricketers both not being accessible or pulling out at a number of phases of the five-Take a look at sequence towards England. The substantial incentives observe a stern warning from the BCCI secretary to gamers who skipped the premier home red-ball event – the Ranji Trophy – with a purpose to put together for the upcoming IPL.
‘Iyer, Ishan are nonetheless within the combine, I do not determine contracts’
A intently associated speaking level is Ishan Kishan, who pulled out of the two-Take a look at sequence in South Africa citing psychological fatigue and was instructed to return to home cricket and rating runs. As an alternative, the wicketkeeper-batter has been seen in IPL preparatory mode and has been coaching with Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya in Baroda.
Kishan was subsequently faraway from the BCCI’s central contracts checklist, as was middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer, who struggled within the early a part of the Take a look at sequence towards England and subsequently pulled out citing again spasms. Iyer skipped the Ranji quarterfinals though he was declared match by the BCCI medical panel.
Dravid insisted he was not part of the crew drafting the central-contract checklist and the 2 gamers remained in India’s scheme of issues. “They’re all the time within the combine,” he stated right here on Saturday.
“Everybody enjoying home cricket is within the combine. I do not determine contracts, proper? Contracts are determined by the selectors and the board. I do not even know what the factors are. Folks ask me my opinion on the 15, and me and Rohit choose the 11. That is the way it works. I do not even know what the checklist of contracted gamers is.”
