The International Cricket Council (ICC) is considering setting up a special fund of at least $15 million for Test cricket. This fund would help raise the players’ match fees and deal with the issue of talented players moving to more profitable T20 leagues. The idea, suggested by Cricket Australia (CA), has the backing of BCCI Secretary Jay Shah, who is likely to be the next ICC Chairman, and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), according to a report in ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’.
This fund would boost the minimum pay for Test players and cover the expenses of sending teams on international tours. It would help national boards like the West Indies, which currently find it hard to match the salaries offered in worldwide T20 competitions.
“The fund would guarantee a minimum payment of USD 10,000 for every player and cover the expenses for international trips for countries that are financially struggling,” the report mentioned.
“It’s great to see progress being made with the Test match fund,” said CA chairman Mike Baird, who first proposed the idea in January.
“We need to remove obstacles and promote Test cricket as the pinnacle of the sport. To preserve its history and tradition, which complements the newer versions of limited-overs cricket,” he continued.
The money from this fund probably won’t help the richest cricket countries – India, Australia, and England – because they already pay their players a lot of money.
But, the amount of money for Test cricket from the ICC might also depend on a disagreement with the TV channel Star, the report said.
Star wants to change a 2022 deal with the ICC and make it cost half of the original price, which was more than three billion dollars.
Earlier this year, the BCCI started a special plan to encourage India’s men’s Test cricket players to focus on Test cricket and reward them for doing well in this long form of the game.
With this new plan, a player who plays in at least 75 percent of India’s Test matches from October to September will get an extra 4.5 million rupees for each match, on top of the 1.5 million rupees they get for playing the match.
Players who play in about half to three-quarters of the matches will get a bonus of Rs 30 lakh for each game they play. The people who are part of the team but don’t play will receive half of that amount if they are chosen for the squad.
