Ranji Trophy to start from Nov 16, over 2100 games scheduled
New Delhi: The BCCI will conduct all its domestic tournaments across age-groups with the coveted Ranji Trophy, starting on November 16, being the marquee event among the 2127 matches scheduled for 2021-22 season. Last season, the BCCI couldn't conduct any age-group tournament and was forced to cancel the Ranji Trophy due to COVID-19 pandemic.
However, a full-fledged domestic season will take place this year with Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 to begin from October 20 and the National One-Day Championship for Vijay Hazare Trophy being scheduled from February 23 next year.
"The season will commence on September 21, 2021, with the Senior Women's One Day League and will be followed by the Senior Women's One Day Challenger Trophy, which will take place from October 27, 2021," BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a media release.
The final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy will be played on November 12 this year.
The coveted Ranji Trophy will be played in a three-month window from November 16, 2021 to February 19, 2022.
The Vijay Hazare Trophy final will take place on March 26, 2022. "The BCCI is confident of hosting the domestic season with health and safety of players and all people involved being paramount," the statement further read.
The Ranji Trophy will be played with two Elite groups comprising nine teams each and the C group and Plate will have 10 teams each. It is expected that the top five teams as per points from the Elite groups will make it to the quarterfinals while two from group C and topper of Plate group completing the last eight line-up. In case of Vijay Hazare Trophy, the groupings will remain same while Mushtaq Ali T20 will have five groups with two groups of seven teams and three groups of eight teams each respectively. The BCCI will conduct Vinoo Mankad Trophy (National U-19 One Day) and U-19 Challengers Trophy in between September to November in order to select the white-ball probables for next year's ICC U-19 World Cup. The three-day Cooch Behar Trophy will start only after the two tournaments are over.
"The core probables for India U-19s will be selected from Vonoo Mankad and subsequently from the Challengers Trophy. If there are any exceptional performers in Cooch Behar, they will be added later on," a BCCI source said.
