Mumbai: The Indian cricket board has scheduled a revamped Ranji Trophy for the 2021-22 season from January 5 to March 20 next year after it released a revised schedule to the state cricket bodies.The Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s will begin on October 27 and run till November 22 whereas the Vijay Hazare one-dayers will run from December 1 to 29. All the three tournaments will follow a uniform pattern this time.
The domestic season will, however, commence from September 20 with the women’s under-19 one-dayers.
The BCCI is working closely with the Government of India, state regulatory authorities, and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that our sport achieves a collaborative solution. With this, there is a combined objective for a complete BCCI Domestic Cricket Season 2021-22 to be played, enabling us to maintain the integrity of each competition, said the BCCI secretary Jay Shah in a letter to state bodies.
The BCCI will proceed with the full season of domestic cricket starting with Under 19 tournaments (both categories) in September 2021, added Shah in the letter.
Unlike previous years, this time there will be uniformity in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s, Ranji Trophy and Vijay Hazare one-dayers. There will be five Elite groups, with each group comprising six teams, in each tournament. There will be one Plate group of eight teams.
The winner of the five Elite groups will make it directly to the quarter-finals. The second-placed teams from each Elite group and the winner of the Plate group will play three pre-quarter finals and the three winners will complete the quarter-final line-up.
In recent times, teams would play 7, 8 or 9 games — with three Elite groups and one Plate group — in the league phase before moving to the knockouts.
The Board had last month issued a statement that the men’s domestic season will commence on October 20 and the Ranji Trophy will be held in a three-month window between November, 16, 2021 to February 19, 2022.
The plans have been changed as the Ranji Trophy has been pushed back to next year.
The restart date for BCCI Domestic Cricket Season 2021-22 has been reviewed with all stakeholders, as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic develops and we work together through this very challenging time, added Shah in the letter.
The BCCI also confirmed that each state squad will be able to have a maximum of 30 members comprising of a minimum of 20 players. It means that the support staff can’t exceed 10.
Each team is encouraged to have a team physician to manage COVID related issues. The team physician is separate from the team physiotherapist and is inclusive of the 10 support staff, the letter added.
The last date for the inter-state transfer and registration of guest players is 15 days before the start of the specific tournament.