Players will take an eight-day match-fee hit with 28 Ranji Trophy teams to be drawn in four groups from 2017-18.
Until the 2015-16 season, nine teams were drawn in three groups (A, B and C) and in 2016-17, Chhattisgarh, promoted as a BCCI full member of the BCCI, was placed in Group-C. The quality players got picked for eight league games (32 match days) and in the case of Group-C, nine matches (36 days).
On Tuesday, the BCCI’s Technical Committee decided to draw the 28 teams in four groups, straightaway reducing the number of matches from eight to six in the four groups.
Under the present payment scale, each player taking part in a senior tournament of the BCCI, receives ₹10,000 as a single match-day fee, which means a ₹40,000 for the four-day league match and ₹50,000 for the five-day knock-out match. The balance is paid after the BCCI’s audited accounts are adopted at the Annual General Meetng in the last week of September.
An eight-day drop could mean a significant loss of around ₹2 lakh.
