The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has sent the day-wise schedule of the upcoming domestic season to the state associations. While Kolkata will host all the knockout games of the Ranji Trophy, the Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament’s knockout games are set to be held in Delhi.
In the mail, accessed by ANI, the venue for Vijay Hazare knockouts is Chennai. The BCCI has also asked the state associations to inform the board on the availability of the ground by September 1 for allocation of games.
The BCCI had earlier decided that each squad for the upcoming domestic season can have a maximum of 30 members comprising of a minimum of 20 players. Accordingly, the number of support staff is capped at a total of 10. The season starts with the Women’s U-19 tournament and the Syed Mushtaq Ali gets underway from October 27. The coveted Ranji Trophy gets underway from January 5.
The board has informed state associations to pick a team physician in each of the squads to manage COVID related issues. The team physician is separate from the team physiotherapist and is inclusive of the 10 support staff. The last date for the inter-state transfer and registration of guest players will be 15 days prior to the start of the specific tournament.
As for the grouping and qualification system for the tournaments, for Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, Ranji Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy, there will be five Elite Groups consisting of six teams each and one Plate Group with eight teams. There will be five matches per team across all groups. The winner of the five Elite Groups will make it directly to the quarter-finals. The second placed teams from each Elite Group and the winner of the Plate Group will play three pre-quarter finals and the three winners will complete the quarters line-up.
For the senior Women’s One Day, T20, and Women’s Under 19 (One-Day), there will be five Elite Groups consisting of six teams and one Plate Group consisting of six teams.