The Economics Behind Ranji Trophy: From Match Fees to Curators, Who Remains Unseen?

Sitting on the SCG Hill in Sydney, when I first opened a Ranji Trophy scorecard, something nagged at me — the scorecard had runs and wickets, but the ledger beneath it was blank. How much match fee did each player get, how many hours did the curator spend preparing the pitch, and what is the salary of the man who unlocked the ground at 4 a.m.? None of it was recorded. That blankness became the real story of the Ranji Trophy for me. The economic structure of Indian domestic cricket often gets buried under the noise of BCCI central contracts and IPL auctions. But the Ranji Trophy — played since 2026 with 38 teams — has its own purse sheet. For the 2026-24 season, the BCCI increased match fees for Ranji players from ₹40,000 to ₹60,000 per day. That means a player featuring in a four-day match earns ₹2.4 lakh. That number sounds fine, but when you compare it to an IPL match fee — where crores are distributed over 14 matches in a season — the disparity is stark. My tour file always has a page titled "who is not here." In the context of the Ranji Trophy, this page matters even more. When I covered a Ranji match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in 2026, I saw the groundstaff working from 4 a.m. — rolling the pitch, watering the outfield, cleaning the dressing room. None of their names appeared on the scorecard, but without them the match wouldn't start. This "unseen labour" has been the centre of my reporting. To understand the Ranji Trophy's economic structure, three levels must be viewed separately. First — player income: apart from match fees, there's the retainer for the domestic season, and if a player is picked in the IPL, that's separate. But for a regular Ranji player — not in the IPL — a large part of annual income comes from this match fee. In 2026-24, a player who plays 10 Ranji matches earns roughly ₹24 lakh. That's fine for a domestic cricketer, but it includes no insurance, no pension, and no medical support. Second level — support staff: curators, scorers, umpires, and groundstaff. There is no public data on their income. I've spoken to scorers at several Ranji matches — they said they get ₹5,000 to ₹8,000 per match and have to bear their own expenses. These are the people who record every ball during a match, the basis on which players are selected. Third level — infrastructure: stadium allocation for Ranji matches, pitch preparation, and weather uncertainty. When I covered the India-Australia Test at Adelaide Oval in 2026, I saw how a curator's team prepares a pitch 36 hours in advance. In Ranji, that time is often shorter because matches are held back-to-back at the same stadium. Now the contrarian angle that looks different from the outside. Whenever the Ranji Trophy is discussed, it's said that "there's no money in Ranji." But that's not the whole story. The BCCI has money — IPL media rights sold for ₹48,390 crore in 2026. The question isn't whether money exists, but where it goes. The BCCI's budget for the Ranji Trophy is a small fraction of one IPL franchise's budget. This is a structural choice, not a compulsion. Another misconception is that Ranji is just "a preparation ground for Test players." The truth is that the Ranji Trophy is a competition in its own right — with its own tradition, records, and heroes. From Sunil Gavaskar to Sachin Tendulkar, every great started in Ranji. But in today's media coverage, Ranji is seen merely as a "trial." From my experience, I'd add another point. When I covered the India-Australia Test in Sydney in 2026, I saw how Australian domestic cricket (Sheffield Shield) gives space in the media to curators and staff. In India, that culture hasn't developed yet. The Ranji Trophy curator's name never makes headlines, yet he prepares the pitch on which the match's future rests. The essence of this whole debate is that Ranji Trophy's economics isn't limited to players' fees. It's a whole ecosystem — including curators, scorers, groundstaff, and local administration. Until their income and working conditions are transparent, any economic analysis of domestic cricket will remain incomplete. Looking ahead, the BCCI has kept the Ranji match fee at ₹60,000 per day for the 2026-25 season, but no new announcement has been made for support staff. The question is whether domestic cricket's "ledger" will ever be complete, or will only scorecards keep getting updated?