Sourav Ganguly in favour of pay hike for the players

The former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly has backed the national team players to receive play hike and feels they deserve the rise in their pay. Indian skipper Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni met the chief of Committee of Administrators Vinod Rai, Diana Edulji and BCCI CEO Rahul Johri in the capital city of India and requested to raise the pay of the cricketers. However, COA accepted the demand of the cricketers and have agreed to look into the matter.

The matter was brought up earlier this year as well when Anil Kumble was the coach of the Team India but the fall out between him and Kohli distracted the issue. The central contracts of Indian cricketers saw more than two-fold rise during their last hike as the top players in Grade A were allotted Rs 2 Crore annually. Similarly, the pay for all the players in every grade was doubled in order to keep the players in a happy space.

Players should be looked after well

Sourav Ganguly batted in favour of the players and felt the cricketers deserve to get their share of revenues when the board is making a lot of money. “Absolutely, players should get money, why not? The Board makes so much money, the players should also get it. When Virat Kohli plays, the entire country watches him. Players should be very well looked after because the (career) span is only 15 years. Not many (players) play for 15 (years), very few play for 20 (years). So, I am a big supporter of that (pay hike),” he told PTI during a promotional event in Mumbai.

“The BCCI does that. If you look at the way the players are looked after these days, it’s phenomenal. I have actually seen the entire circle. When I played in 1991, for the entire trip in Australia, I got paid Rs 30,000, and when I finished in 2013, I could see the drastic change. It’s in every profession,” he added. Ganguly also felt that the issue of the future tour programs (FTP) should be sorted out.

Virat is the captain, if he sorts the issue out, it will get done. I don’t see much problem there. Before going on tours, I think they should clear it out. It isn’t difficult to sit down and talk about this and clear things. All the players are playing well. They are all hitting centuries. Virat is in top form, so it’s okay, let them play,” Dada concluded.