BCCI corrects a huge error just in time

The Ranji Trophy, India’s premier domestic first-class tournament started on 6th of October this year. Now after seven rounds of the league games, 8 top teams from the four groups have made their way to the quarter-final round of the trophy.

After the completion of the group stages, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the schedule for the quarter-finals which are set to begin from the 7th of December. In the announced schedule, Group D topper Vidarbha are set to face the 2nd ranked Kerala from group B. Although earlier BCCI had made a mistake in their draw which was shared among the teams.

In the circular, the board had mentioned that the toppers of group B and D will face each other while the teams at the second positions in the league stage from the B and D group will take on each other in the knockout round. In the same circular, BCCI had mentioned that the topper from group A will face the 2nd ranked team from the group C while the top-ranked side from Group C will face the 2nd ranked side from group A.

As per the rules of the tournament, the two toppers from two groups can not face other each other. This was noticed by the Vidarbha Cricket Association and they pointed the same to the BCCI. “There was an error in the original draw but the handbook also specified that if the last year’s finalists made it to the knock-outs, they would have to be placed in separate halves,” a BCCI source was quoted by The Hindu.

Now that the board has managed to clear out the confusion, it will be great to see the teams fighting out for the spot in the semi-finals. The quarter-finals will be hosted by Rajkot, Hyderabad, Nagpur, and Vijayawada. While the final of the championship will be played at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai which was announced by the executive committee member of Cricket Club of India, Sachin Bajaj.

Written by Suraj Shukla