Per match fee, retainer fee and FTP - how Indian cricket stands
On November 30 Indian skipper Virat Kohli, coach Ravi Shastri, and former skipper MS Dhoni met the Committee of Administrators (CoA). The Agenda of the meeting was to discuss player compensation and the number of matches to be played in accordance with the Future Tours Program (FTP).
Per match fees comparison of top five test playing nations
Every top cricket board tries to keep their players happy in terms of the compensation offered. Let us compare the match fees of top 5 test teams:
Figures suggest that the richest board in the world - BCCI, pays the players a significant sum per match to make sure that salary related disputes do not arise. In recent times many instances of such disputes have surfaced which can prove to be detrimental to the team's success. West Indies, Sri Lanka, and Australia are the teams which had issueswith their respective boards regarding payment issues.
Retainer Fee (Annual Fee) comparison
The retainer fee is the amount paid annually to the contracted players of the respective boards. Let us compare them (for grade A players):
The retainer fee of the Indian players is the second lowest amongst the top 5 teams. Given the fan base in India and a massive pool of talented cricketers, players are often under immense pressure to maintain their place in the national squad. Thus, requested salary hike is totally justified.
Earlier, in May 2017, former head coach Anil Kumble had requested BCCI to raise this amount to Rs.5 Crore (USD 775000) which was pushed on the back-burner by the BCCI. Now Virat Kohli has also come up with the same figure.
FTP comparison of top five test playing nations - number of days of cricket
FTP is a schedule prepared by the ICC wherein all the test playing nations have to play a minimum of two bilateral series against each other in a span of 10 years.
Player burnout is a constant fear for the team management. An excessive number of matches and lack of breaks can lead to irrecoverable injuries to the players and can leave the management grappling to find the replacement.
Let us have a look at the Future Tours Program of top 5 test playing nations -
India tops the list here with 113 days of cricket across all the formats and are the only side playing over 100 days, with Australia in second with 95 and England third with 92.
Skipper Virat Kohli recently complained to the BCCI about the packed schedule of the players posing injury threats and also slimming India's chances to win more matches. The complaint seems justified when we look at the above numbers. IPL adds 45 more days of energy sapping cricket.
Most team management across the globe have started to form specialized teams for different formats in order to provide the players appropriate rest in between the series.
Experts suggest 90 days of cricket as the threshold. India's count shoots way above the required threshold.
As per the above analysis, BCCI's pay structure and FTP need to change in order for it to be more player friendly. With an ever-approachable CoA now, the players can expect it to be on par with the others.