Ranji games at neutral venues, Duleep’s zonal system scrapped

The meeting was also attended by BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke. “The committee discussed the format for Duleep Trophy for the season 2016-17. It was recommended that selectors would pick four teams to participate in a round-robin format tournament. The entire tournament will be a day/night affair,” a BCCI release stated.

With India playing as many as 13 Test matches at home against New Zealand, England and Australia, it was proposed by Thakur that all Test hopefuls and the fringe players should get a chance to get used to the pink ball. “The president feels that like Challenger Trophy, this season’s Duleep should have all the big players as well as Test hopefuls getting a chance to play with pink balls under lights. 

That’s why it has been decided there will be no zonal system this time round,” a member of the technical committee told PTI on Sunday. It was also learnt that Ganguly had suggested about having a quality foreign team for the Duleep Trophy, but it was decided otherwise. “Ganguly’s proposal was duly considered. But then we felt that supposedly we call a first-class side from Australia and if they lose the first match in knock-out system, the purpose of inviting them would get lost,” the source added. It was learnt that all matches will be played with kookaburra balls but some other sports goods firms are also in discussions to manufacture pink balls for D/N games. The other major decision was having Ranji Trophy games at neutral venues.

“In a bid to make domestic cricket more competitive and rule out the issues related to preparing specific wickets for home teams, as well as to expose players to play in different conditions, the BCCI Technical Committee recommended neutral venues for the Ranji Trophy matches This is a step recommended to make domestic Ranji Trophy more competitive,” the release stated.