Six states from North East to take part in Ranji Trophy from next year

The Committee of Administrators (CoA) has assured six states from North East that they will be playing the next season of Ranji Trophy. The six states Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh will play as an individual unit from next year in India’s major domestic competition.

The members of all the six states met Vinod Rai, the chairman of CoA, for around one and half hour with a plea of taking part as a combined unit this season. However, they have been assured that they will play as separate states in the age group categories (U-16, U-19 and U-23) from this season onwards.

“Mr Rai told us that since Ranji Trophy is starting from October 6, it will be difficult to play this season. However, we will be playing as individual states from next season. After all these years, this is the first time we have got complete assurance. Prof Shetty will look into implementation part,” north east convenor Naba Bhattacharjee said as quoted by Times of India.

The tournaments will have a specific North East zone

The good news for the north eastern states is that the CoA has decided to have a specific North East zone for the U-16 National Championship (Vinoo Mankad) and U-23 (CK Nayudu Trophy). “The U-16 and U-23 BCCI tournaments are held zone wise. While Assam and Tripura continue to play in East Zone, a dedicated North East Zone will be created. The top two from the zone will qualify for the knockouts,” Bhattacharjee added.

Ranji Trophy, this season is set to commence from October 6 with BCCI making major changes in the format of the tournament. This year it will have 28 participating teams divided into 4 groups – A, B, C, and D. In the previous editions, since 2012 season, there used to be 3 groups comprising of 10, 10, and 9 teams. Hence, the new structure offers greater balance with 7 teams in each pool. The top two teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals.