Former BCCI secretary Niranjan Shah, who currently serves as honorary secretary of the Saurashtra Cricket Association, has called for the introduction of a salary cap on domestic cricketers switching states to ply their trade as ‘guest players’ in order to stop poaching.
The veteran administrator’s comments came after Saurashtra’s top batsmen Sheldon Jackson left the state side for Puducherry for a higher paycheque recently. Jackson had played a key role in Saurashtra’s maiden Ranji Trophy title victory recently.
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Shah told The Indian Express: “It’s a matter of concern for the home state because, in the longer run, players will start negotiating with other associations. BCCI should introduce a cap system to ensure a guest player doesn’t earn more than a certain amount. Nine new teams have been included in the Ranji Trophy straightaway without proving anything. They will start bargaining like this.”
He further recalled the time when BCCI allowed three guest players in a domestic team more than a decade ago in order to give the opportunity a quality player who would not get a chance to play cricket for his original team, but the things have now changed, as players are taking it as Indian Premier League.
Shad explained, “There were many good players in Mumbai, Karnataka, or other teams who couldn’t find a place in their respective teams because of a big competition. So, the guest player concept was introduced. Now what is happening is players have started their own valuation. Ranji Trophy cannot become like IPL.”
However, the BCCI doesn’t have any rule regarding the remuneration of guest players that leads to many states to give extra money to attract players and Shah pointed out Saurashtra never paid a single paisa above the BCCI fees to its guest players.
He signed off by saying, “The smaller state associations are getting money from the BCCI for development of cricket in their region. And not to give extra money to players. It took us more than 30 years to become a competitive team and win the Ranji Trophy. BCCI has to do something about this.”
(With The Indian Express Inputs)
