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Ranji Trophy returns as BCCI releases 2021-22 domestic calendar
The move to restart domestic cricket though comes as welcome news for thousands of cricketers, coaches, match officials, groundsmen, scorers and others who are dependent on these earnings
Mumbai: After the no-show in 2020-21, a first in its 87-year history, the Ranji Trophy is back with BCCI announcing that the premier domestic competition will be part of the new season, commencing in November. The Indian board announced plans to have most domestic competitions for men and women (2,127 matches in all) up and running again, after the monsoon.
The T20 World Cup to be hosted by India had to be relocated to the UAE recently. The move to restart domestic cricket though comes as welcome news for thousands of cricketers, coaches, match officials, groundsmen, scorers and others who are dependent on these earnings. “The BCCI is confident of hosting the domestic season with health and safety of players and all people involved being paramount,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a statement on Saturday.
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The men’s season begins with the 22-day Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy starting October 20. It will run parallel to the T20 World Cup. The Ranji Trophy will start on November 16 and run till February 19. The format remains unchanged with 38 teams divided into four groups–A, B, C and Plate. The month-long Vijay Hazare ODI tournament will begin on February 23 next year.
There are no plans to have Duleep, Deodhar and Irani Trophy at this stage. This would again leave Ranji champions Saurashtra without the opportunity to defend their title against Rest of India in the Irani Trophy. This happened with the first-time winners in March 2020 when their ROI tie became the first domestic match to be cancelled due to Covid-19.
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Apart from the senior women’s ODI league and ODI Challengers, two competitions for women’s U-23 and three for U-19 will also take place. The junior competitions had become mandatory with ICC adding the women’s U-19 World Cup to its calendar.
BCCI top brass has also had discussions to raise match fees for domestic cricketers and work out a compensation package for those who missed out on their earnings, last year.
