2 Crore is Peanuts: Shastri Wants Big Raise for Indian Cricketers

File photo of Ravi Shastri with Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay. (Photo: PTI)

The world’s biggest T20 tournament is set to kick-off in India but the focus seems to refuse to move away from international cricketers. Or rather, their un-international size salary packages.

The latest to bring up the matter of salaries of the Indian cricket team is Ravi Shastri who demanded that players be given major hikes by the Indian cricket board. Terming the BCCI’s recent doubling of player salaries as “peanuts”, Shastri spoke out in support of the players who have reportedly approached the board with a demand to increase their renumeration.

Last month BCCI doubled the retainers for all contracted players to Rs 2 crore, Rs 1 crore and Rs 50 lakh for the three graded categories A, B and C. The Board also enhanced the match fees to Rs 15 lakh for Tests, Rs 6 lakh for ODIs and Rs 3 lakh for every T20 a player features in.

Not satisfied with these revised pay structure, Shastri said “it’s (what they are getting) nothing, (Rs) 2 crore is peanuts. How much is an Australian (cricketer) getting?”.

Cheteshwar Pujara missed out at the IPL auction despite a base price of Rs 30 lakh. (Photo: BCCI)

The Pujara Dilemma

Singling out top Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara who does not have a contract with any franchise in the upcoming IPL despite quoting a base price of Rs 50 lakh, Shastri said the BCCI should put in place guarantees so that specialist players like Pujara are not worried about missing out on the big pay-outs of the T20 league.

Read: Does Cheteshwar Pujara Really Deserve to Miss the Money Train?

The grade contracts of a Test player should be the highest. (Cheteshwar) Pujara should be the higest, at par with top players. Your A grade contracts have to be massive. That is the best grade, where an A grade player like Pujara gets a massive amount and is not bothered whether he plays IPL or not. He will be happy and say ‘I can play two months of country cricket’ and go (to England).

Ravi Shastri, Former Team Manager - India

Shastri's support for another steep hike in the players' fees comes on the heels of news reports emerging that the players were unhappy even with these enhanced pay structure announced by the Board on March 22.

Their contention, according to the reports, is that the cricketers from England, Australia and South Africa were being paid much more by their respective cricket boards.

(With inputs from PTI)