I hope money is not an incentive to play Test cricket: Head coach Rahul Dravid

Rahul-Dravid. (Photo Source: Twitter)

India secured a brilliant victory over England in the five-match Test series. Meanwhile, the discussions have surrounded over Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) new incentive scheme for Test cricket. According to the ‘Test Cricket Incentive Scheme’, players playing more than 3/4th of the total games played in a season will be awarded a match fee of INR 45 lakh per game.

Indian head coach Rahul Dravid has also put weight on this discussion. He said that this initiative should be viewed not as an incentive, but rather as a well-deserved reward for the hard efforts required to achieve success in the game’s longest format.

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Recently, BCCI announced the central contracts for the players for the 2024-24 season. The list saw some surprising exclusions in the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan who had declined from participating in domestic cricket. Chief Secretary Jay Shah announced the new incentive scheme designed to encourage players to participate in the format.

Dravid, in the same vein, voiced his perspective on the new incentive scheme after India’s victory over England in the Dharamsala Test. “I hope money is not an incentive to play Test cricket. It is just a recognition that it’s a tough format. You go through a lot. We don’t celebrate 100 T20Is like we do 100 Tests, right? It’s not an incentive, it’s a reward,” he said.

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Yashasvi Jaiswal gets Player of the Series award for superb series

India’s dominant performance against England came after great performances from all the departments. The hosts secured a victory by an innings and 64 runs.

Yashasvi Jaiswal was awarded the Player of the Series award for his exceptional run with the bat throughout the series. With this win, India not only clinched the series 4-1 but also strengthened their position in the ICC World Test Championship 2023-25 points table and are at the pole position.