Ranji Trophy: BCCI decide to reinstate zonal pitch award

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reinstated the zone based best pitch award in the Ranji Trophy, the domestic tournament. The decision was taken in a two-day BCCI curators’ meeting at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi on Tuesday. The officials are confident that the matches will be played on fair pitches in the tournament following this decision.

The board had discontinued the award last year due to the lack of uniformity as the neutral venues did not get equal number of matches. There were several controversies regarding the quality of wickets by the visiting teams. The matches were literally finished within 2 days which was highly criticised by many.

BCCI to reward 10 lakh to the winner

The Indian board is set to award Rs 10 lakh to the association which produces best pitches for the season. The reward will also encourage them to prepare good surfaces instead of wickets which are conducive to the home teams.

“The best pitch in a particular zone would be given Rs 10 lakh each, which would give a boost to the local association to prepare best possible wickets,” a board official was quoted as saying.

Recently, BCCI had also approved the appointment of the neutral curators for the matches in Ranji Trophy within respective zones. The board is also expecting match-referees to play a pro-active role in this case. Ranji Trophy will also feature fewer matches this season as BCCI had earlier decided to manage the workload of the bowlers.

As per the new format, two teams from each of the four groups will advance to the quarterfinals, unlike the previous system, which saw three teams advancing from the A & B groups (comprising of the top-ranked, elite teams), and two teams from the C group (comprising of the lower ranked, plate teams). Also, the format eliminates the possibility of a team making the knockouts from a relatively weaker group. Ranji Trophy is set to commence on October 6.