The annual Ranji Trophy season is finally set to begin with the Elite Group matches to be held from February 16 to March 5. Last year, the Ranji Trophy was cancelled due to rising Covid-19 numbers in the country. Eight groups of four teams each will feature in the domestic competition this time, with the six-team plate group matches scheduled to be held simultaneously.
As per the original plan, the groupings had 30 Elite and eight Plate teams, but in the current plan, the combination will be 32 Elites and six Plate teams.
“Our operation team has given this date and we are focusing on low risk state associations where we can host matches. February 16 has been decided for the commencement of the season but need to stamped. There was proposal for 13th and 15th as well,” a source told Sports Tak.
According to the new schedule, group league matches are likely to played in Chennai, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Rajkot, Cuttack, Guwahati, Kolkata and Hyderabad.
Earlier, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly had said that the board was “looking at a normal Ranji Trophy format, where we will have six groups, six teams in each group, and five matches.”
The IPL scheduled to begin at the end of March. BCCI aims to finish off the league stage latest by the first week of March, so that the players can join their respective IPL teams and enter the bio-bubble soon. The board is expected to release the final schedule on Tuesday.
“The board has decided to conduct the Ranji Trophy this season in two phases. In the first phase, we plan to complete all matches of the league stage while the knockouts will be held in June,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah had said in a release earlier this month.
The Ranji Trophy was supposed to start on January 13, but a spike in Covid-19 cases across the country forced the BCCI to put the tournament on hold. Now, with the situation is improving, the board has decided to host the tournament in two phases – the league stage before the IPL and the knockouts post the franchise league.
