BCCI plans to start new domestic season from September

The domestic calendar was prepared and discussed at the Apex Council meeting held on Friday

New Delhi: The BCCI plans to kick-start its 2021-22 domestic season in September this year with the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament and has also allocated a three-month window to the Ranji Trophy from December after the marquee event had to be cancelled last season due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the Duleep Trophy, Deodhar Trophy and Irani Cup are not a part of the tentative calendar prepared by the cricket operations team. Apart from this, five women’s competitions have also been dropped from the roster.

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The domestic calendar was prepared and discussed at the Apex Council meeting held on Friday. The 2020-21 season was a severely truncated one with only the National T20 (Mushtaq Ali) and ODI (Vijay Hazare Trophy) championships being held in the wake of pandemic. For women, only the National One-Day meet was organised.

Amid a second wave of Covid-19 cases across India, the BCCI is still hopeful of conducting the domestic season across age-groups in men and women’s categories after a curtailed last season.

With India playing the T20 World Cup in October and the mega IPL auctions in the offing next year, it is understood that all stakeholders want to start off with two white ball tournaments — Mushtaq Ali T20 between “mid-September to October” followed by the Vijay Hazare Trophy in November.

Ranji Trophy, India’s premier tournament which was cancelled for the first time in 87 years in 2020, has been planned between December and March in the upcoming season. The BCCI has also slotted the U-23 tournaments for men and women along with the U-19 events which weren’t held during the last season.

Hyderabad named as one of WC venues

Pakistan’s cricket players will get visas to compete in the T20 World Cup in India this October, the BCCI’s apex council has been told by Board secretary Jay Shah following “government assurances”.

Shah told the council in a video conference meeting held on Friday where it was also decided that the mega-event will be staged across nine venues with Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium hosting the final.

The other venues are Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Dharamsala and Lucknow.

“The visa issue of Pakistan cricket team has been sorted. However, whether the fans can travel across the border to watch matches is still not clear,” an Apex Council member told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

“It will be decided in due course of time. However, we had promised ICC that it will be sorted. The secretary announced during the meeting.”

India and Pakistan have not played bilateral cricket for close to a decade now due to diplomatic tensions between the two countries. Pakistan has been demanding assurances from the ICC that visas will be granted to its players for the 16-team extravaganza, which will complete seven editions this year.

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