Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy to be competed zonally: Anurag Thakur

After making the Duleep Trophy a pink-ball affair, newly appointed BCCI president Anurag Thakur has stated that the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament is set to become a zonal affair. This move comes as a bid to ‘add meaning’ to the domestic T20 tournament. The move will witness state teams from different zones taking on each other. The zones include North, South, East, West, and Central. After qualifying, these teams will face-off against each other in the subsequent knockout stages.

The current format of the tournament witness teams divided into groups who compete against each other. This move will come as a move to shake-up the current state of competition between the teams.

Anurag Thakur, BCCI President confirmed the development to PTI and said, “We discussed the issue at length during our fixtures committee Meeting. The endeavour is to make domestic cricket more engaging and viable. With 1882 playing days, the BCCI has shown how serious we are about our domestic structure.”

Thakur also added that the Ranji Trophy to be played at a neutral venue as opposed to the winning team allowed to choose the conditions they play in.

“We have decided to have Ranji Trophy at a neutral venue, Duleep Trophy with a pink ball and now we are trying to make Mushtaq Ali more competitive by bringing in a zonal structure. The aim is to improve the quality of domestic cricket. We are trying to finalize details and senior officials will be putting a process in place,” Thakur added.

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Further reports also suggest that the BCCI plans to schedule the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament in a similar manner as the IPL.