BCCI proposes curtailed domestic cricket season for 2020-21

State associations presented with four options for a truncated domestic cricket season; BCCI plans to stage the tournament/s in ‘six bio-secure hubs’

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has presented the State associations with four options for a truncated domestic cricket season due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The associations have been asked to revert with their preferred option by December 2.

In an email to all the BCCI affiliates, accessed by The Hindu, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has specified the four options for the senior men’s domestic season. They are:

Option 1: Only Ranji Trophy

Option 2: Only Syed Mushtaq Ali T20

Option 3: Both Ranji Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali T20

Option 4: Both Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 and Vijay Hazare Trophy

The email also details that the BCCI plans to stage the tournament/s in “six bio-secure hubs”. “The BCCI will have to create a total of 6 bio-secure hubs across the country. The 38 teams will be divided into 5 Elite groups and 1 Plate group. The Elite groups will consist of 6 teams each while the Plate group will have 8 teams,” the email states.

The BCCI chief has added that the Ranji Trophy will require 67 days, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 22 days and the Vijay Hazare Trophy 28 days for completion. The proposed windows for the competitions are January 11 to March 18 (Ranji), December 20 to January 10 (Syed Mushtaq Ali) and Vijay Hazare Trophy (January 11 to February 7).

According to the email, each of the six staging cities will have to have at least three digital broadcast-friendly venues.

This is the first concrete step towards the BCCI organising any competitive cricket in India since the Ranji Trophy final concluded on March 17. While in August, Ganguly had sent out a non-committal advisory to the State associations, the BCCI apex council last month had targetted January 1 as the start of domestic cricket.

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