The Board of Control for Cricket in India(BCCI) has issued a fresh schedule for the Indian domestic cricket season. The most important news coming out from this is that the premier first-class domestic cricket tournament of India, The Ranji Trophy, will start from the 5th January of next year and it will last till the 20th of March.
Last season, the Ranji Trophy wasn’t held due to the COVID-19 pandemic and also due to the added cost of creating bio-bubbles for all of the 38 domestic teams. But now, the top first-class tournament of India is back. The domestic cricket season for the senior men’s will start, though, with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the domestic T20 tournament, which will start after the IPL on the 27th of October, so that player availability won’t be an issue.
The Vijay Hazare Trophy, considered the domestic one-day tournament, will start on the 1st of December and will end on the 29th of the same month. Women will play their first senior domestic tournament, called the National One Day, which will take place from the 20th of October to the 20th of November.
The season will start with the U-19 One Day tournament, called the Vino Mankad trophy, for both men’s and women’s cricket, which will start from the 20th of September. It will be followed by the U-19 Challenger Trophy, for both men and women’s cricket, starting from October 25th and 26th respectively.
The U-25 List A matches will be played from the 9th of November to the 10th of December. The CK Nayadu Trophy for the U-25 players(earlier it used to be U-23) will begin from the 6th of January. Regarding the groupings, all 38 teams will be divided into six groups. There will be five Elite Groups with six teams and one Plate Group for eight teams. For junior(U-25) cricket, it will be the same with the Elite Groups but the Plate Group will only have seven teams.
