The BCCI had recently denied central contracts to a couple of players for non-participation in the Ranji Trophy.
“I think what Rahul Dravid (India head coach) said, when it was announced in Dharamsala, that he would like to call it a reward. That is a wonderful thing by the BCCI to reward those who would be playing, but I would also request the BCCI to ensure that the feeder to the Test team, which is the Ranji Trophy, that is also looked after. (If) the Ranji Trophy fees can be doubled or tripled, certainly there’ll be a lot more people playing the Ranji Trophy, (a) lot less pull outs from the Ranji Trophy, because if the fees of playing a Ranji Trophy match is a good fee there will be less people pulling out for various reasons. They will all be wanting to play with the slab system – every 10 first-class matches you get that much more so I would request the BCCI to look at that aspect as well,” Gavaskar told reporters during the 25th anniversary celebrations of his Foundation ‘CHAMPS,’ which held needy sportspersons, on Friday.
Gavaskar backed India and Mumbai pace bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur‘s statement that there needs to be more gap between matches in the Ranji Trophy than what exists presently-just a three-day turnaround time-in order to prevent injuries to the players.
“That’s something that should be considered because you have to have a situation… In the three day gap what happens is that there’s probably a day in between in travel. During travel, there’s no time to go to the physio and maybe take his help to get fit from a niggle. So, probably there should be a little bit of a gap so that the player has got adequate time,” Gavaskar said.
Gavaskar recommended that the Ranji Trophy be played between October to mid-December, so that the players can practice for the IPL in the white-ball tournaments from January.
“My personal opinion is to have the Ranji Trophy from October to mid-December and then bring in the white-ball tournaments. That way, everybody will be available to play except for the ones featuring for India. There will be no real excuse to pull out. With the one-dayers beginning from January, people who are in the IPL can have enough practice from then,” he said.