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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday announced the schedule for India's domestic 2022-23 season, which will see more than 1500 matches being played. The season is slated to commence in the first week of September 2022 and go on till mid-March 2023.
Meanwhile, the prestigious Duleep Trophy will kick off the season, which will also see the return of the Irani Cup. The Duleep Trophy (September 8-September 25) will be contested between six zones (North, South, Central, West, East, and Northeast) on a knockout basis.
These multi-day contests will be followed by the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy, which will be played between 38 teams split into three groups of eight teams each and two groups comprising seven each.
"The Ranji Trophy, India's premier domestic tournament, will have two categories; 1) Elite and 2) Plate. The Elite Group will comprise 32 teams and will have 4 groups of 8 teams in a home and away format with each team playing 7 matches in the league stage. The top two teams from each of the four groups will directly qualify for the quarterfinals," BCCI stated in an official release.
The Plate Group will have six teams and 15 league matches, and the top 4 will directly qualify for the semifinals while the bottom two will play against each other for the 5th/6th place. Both the Elite Group and Plate Group league matches will start on 13th December with the Plate League concluding on 29th January and the Elite group finishing on 20th February.
And with the ICC Women's T20 World Cup scheduled to take place in South Africa in February 2023, the women's calendar will begin with the Senior Women's T20 Trophy starting on October 11 and concluding on November 5. This will be followed by the Senior Women's Interzonal T20 and T20 Challenger. The 50-over format will then take over with Senior Women's one-day Trophy and the inter-zonal one-day.
Both the Senior Women's Interzonal T20 and one-day have been re-introduced this season. For the first time, the Board will conduct a one-day tournament for girls at the U-16 level. The competition will help the girls get a feel of competitive cricket at a young age and help them make a smoother transition to the U-19 level.
Since South Africa will also host the inaugural ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup in January, the women's U19 T20 Trophy and Women's U19 T20 Challenger have been scheduled from 1st October to 7th November.
