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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on April 10 announced the domestic season schedule for the 2023-24 cycle. The season will begin with Duleep Trophy, which is scheduled to start on June 28, 2023, and end with Ranji Trophy knockout matches, which are scheduled to be played in March 2024. The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic forced the Indian cricket board to curtail the domestic season, and now after a gap of three years, the BCCI has announced the original calendar for the domestic season. Deodhar Trophy is set to return to the fold after a three-year hiatus. The last season of the Deodhar Trophy was played in 2019 in Ranchi.
The domestic season will last for a span of 10 months. In those 10 months, Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy, Irani Cup, Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Ranji Trophy Elite, Ranji Trophy Plate, CK Nayudu, Coochbehar, Vijay Merchant, Senior Women's T20 Trophy, ODI Trophy and other tournaments are scheduled to be played.
Schedule
Duleep Trophy will be played from June 28 to July 16 and the competition will be followed by Deodhar Trophy, which will be played between July 24 to August 3. The Irani Cup will start after the end of the monsoon on October 1 and will run till October 5. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy will start on October 16 and will end on November 6. Apart from this, Vijay Hazare Trophy will start on November 23 and it will run till December 15. Ranji Trophy Elite and Plate matches will start on January 5, 2024.
Keeping in mind the ODI World Cup that is scheduled to take place in India later in the year, the Indian cricket board has given the responsibility of upgrading 15 cricket stadiums to a consultancy firm, Grant Thornton.
Format
There will be eight teams in each of the three groups for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. These teams will have to play seven matches each. There will be seven teams in two groups for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. All these teams will have to play a minimum of six matches each. There will be eight teams in four groups for the Ranji Trophy and each team will get seven matches in the league stage. The competition will then witness four quarterfinals, two semi-finals and then the final. Apart from this, there will be a total of six teams in the Plate division. Each team will have to play five matches before the semi-finals and the final.
In Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, two teams from each group will qualify for the knockouts. The teams will be ranked from 1-10 and the sides ranked 1-6 will directly qualify for the quarterfinals. While there will be pre-quarterfinal matches between the teams ranked 7-10 and the 7th and 8th ranked teams will play quarterfinals. The same format will be used in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
The top two teams from the four elite groups of the Ranji Trophy will directly qualify for the quarterfinals. In this, teams of A1 Vs B2, A2 Vs B1, C1 Vs D2, and D1 Vs C2 will play quarterfinals directly.
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