BCCI releases revised domestic cricket schedule for season 2021-22, Ranji Trophy postponed

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has revised the domestic cricket schedule for season 2021-22. The upcoming Ranji Trophy season will be played between January 5 and March 20, while the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy will begin on October 27 and run until November 22, The Vijay Hazare Trophy is scheduled from December 1 to 29. Further, the women’s one-day competition, which was set for a September 21 start, has been pushed back to October 20.

The postponements come in the backdrop of various state boards’ requests to the BCCI to provide them additional time to prepare for the tournaments, which were cancelled last year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Further, it has been decided that every squad across all tournaments can have a maximum of 30 members, with 10 being support staff members and the remaining players, as reported and confirmed by TOI.

“The BCCI is working very closely with the government of India, state regulatory authorities, and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that our sport achieves a collaborative solution. With this, there is a combined objective for a complete BCCI domestic cricket season 2021-22 to be played, enabling us to maintain the integrity of each competition,” Board secretary Jay Shah said.

“The restart date for BCCI domestic cricket season 2021-22 has been reviewed with all stakeholders, as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic develops and we work together through this very challenging time. “The BCCI will proceed with the full season of domestic cricket starting with Under-19 tournaments (both categories) in September 2021,” he added.

Further, Shah also shared details on the qualifications for knockouts. “The winner of the five Elite Groups will make it directly to the quarterfinals. The second-placed teams from each elite group and the winner of the plate group will play three pre-quarterfinals and the three winners will complete the quarterfinal line-up,” the letter informed.

“The pandemic has been tough on all of us, we have all had to make some hard decisions that have kept us from playing a full-fledged domestic cricket season in India. On behalf of the BCCI, we thank all our state associations, administrators, match officials, coaches, and athletes, for their patience and understanding,” Shah wrote. We will be sharing more details in relation to the domestic cricket season 2021-22 shortly.”

The Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, the Ranji Trophy and the Vijay Hazare (men’s one-day) Trophy will have five elite groups of six teams each and one plate group of eight teams (total of 38 teams).

The men’s state A one-dayers and the CK Nayudu, which will now be an U25 tournament instead of U23, will have five elite groups of six teams each and one plate group of seven teams. In both these tournaments, the elite groups will see each team play five matches, the plate group will see each team play six matches.

In the Cooch-Behar Trophy and the Vinoo Mankad one-dayers, both U19 tournaments, the senior women’s one-dayers, senior women’s T20 and the women’s under-19 one-dayers, there will be five elite groups of six teams each and one plate group of six teams. Each team will play five matches across all groups except the senior women’s T20, in which each plate group team will play six matches.