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How Kevin Pietersen lauded 'powerful leader' Jay Shah after BCCI tripled Test match incentive
England's Kevin Pietersen lauded 'powerful leader' Jay Shah after the BCCI tripled the Test match incentive.
Former England skipper Kevin Pietersen had nothing but praise for Jay Shah after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) introduced an incentive scheme for Indian men’s players representing the Asian giants in the longest format of the game. Days after dropping premier batters Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan from the annual retention list, the apex cricket board of India increased a player's match fee by 300% on Saturday.
BCCI triples Test match incentive
Players who play 75 per cent or more of the scheduled Test games in the season will receive an incentive of ₹45 lakh per game. As per the BCCI's incentive scheme, a player playing 10 Tests in a season will be richer by a staggering sum of INR 4.50 crore. Veterans Cheteshwar Pujara and Umesh Yadav will get their incentives for the previous season as the duo was not a part of the revised central contracts list for the 2023-2024 season.
How Pietersen lauded 'powerful leader' Jay Shah
Welcoming BCCI's announcement on X, formerly known as Twitter, former England batter Pietersen hailed Shah in his special post. "NOW WE TALKING! Highly commendable that @JayShah is doing his utmost to protect Test Cricket! We need the powerful leaders to stand up for Test Cricket like this! Thank you!," Pietersen said. The BCCI announced the incentive scheme on a day when Virat Kohli-less Team India registered a 4-1 Test series win over Ben Stokes’ England in Dharamsala.
Former England skipper Pietersen also reflected on the performance of the visitors in the five-match Test series against India. “I find it really strange how teams find it so hard to beat India in India. We had no problems. One of the easiest tours we ever went on……,” Pietersen added. Earlier, Shah asserted that the BCCI will spend around ₹45 crore for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. "With the scheme, the players will earn even more than the IPL contract,. This show IPL is important but bilateral Test cricket is also very important. The total outflow will be ₹45 crore," Shah said.
