Ranji trophy to kick off on February 17

Express News Service

CHENNAI:  The first phase of the Ranji Trophy will get underway on February 17 as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the groupings and the venues on Thursday. India’s premier domestic event, which features 38 teams, will see the group stages and one pre-quarterfinal held before the Indian Premier League. The quarterfinals, semifinals and final will take place in June. 

According to a schedule sent by the BCCI secretary Jay Shah to the state units, the BCCI has slotted 34 days for the 57 matches for the phase 1 with the teams entering a bio-secure bubble on February 10. Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Haryana, Delhi, Guwahati, Cuttack, Thiruvanathapuram and Chennai will be the host cities for Elite groups. Kolkata will host the Plate group. The 38 teams have been divided into Elite and Plate category, with the former making eight groups of four teams each. 

Interestingly, on Thursday, the Delhi High Court refused to allow outdoor sports activities in the national capital due to the current pandemic situation. According to reports, the court has said Delhi Distaster Management Authority should be allowed to decide on this. The DDMA is due to meet on Friday to assess the situation.

For the overall balance of the groupings, the BCCI has also given promotion to Chandigarh and Meghalaya as both teams had finished third and fourth in the Plate group in the 2019/20 season. Goa and Pondicherry by virtue of being the toppers were automatically entitled to join the Elite teams. The six teams in Plate will play three matches each with their opponents set to be announced soon.

To ensure a level-playing field, the BCCI has also ensured no team will play at home. The eight teams that finish top of the Elite groups will advance to the knockout stages. Among them the lowest-ranked one will face the topper of Plate group in a pre-quarterfinal. This pre-quarterfinal will take place immediately after the group matches and will be a four-day affair beginning on March 12. The other seven teams will get direct entry to the quarterfinals. 

“We have spread the Ranji Trophy to nine different venues, across the country to mitigate any cross-transmission risk while also ensuring that bio-secure bubbles are not overburdened. While the persistent virus has still breached the bubble we have factored in certain contingency plans drawing from our past experience while formulating this structure,” Shah wrote in the letter to the state units on Thursday.

It is understood that the cricket operations wing placed multiple options before the top brass of the board. This included a Super Eight format, which would have seen eight teams play a minimum of six matches before a final. In the current format, the teams that make it to the final will get to play seven matches as the board was not in favour of extending the season to July.  This is two short of the number of matches (18 teams fr­om Elite Group A and B) played in group stages of the 2019/20 season. Teams in Elite C and Plate played nine matches each in the group stages. This was followed by quarterfinals, semifinals and final.

Elite
Group A @ Rajkot: Gujarat, MP, Kerala and Meghalaya
Group B @ Cuttack: Bengal, Baroda, Hyderabad and Chandigarh
Group C @ Chennai: Karnataka, Railways, J & K and Pondicherry
Group D @ Ahmedabad: Saurashtra, Mumbai, Odisha and Goa
Group E @ T’puram: Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Services and Uttarakhand
Group F @ Delhi: Punjab, HP, Haryana and Tripura
Group G @ Haryana: Vidarbha, UP, Maharashtra and Assam
Group H @ Guwahati: Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Chhattishgarh

Plate 
@ Kolkata: Bihar, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

Group matches: Feb 17-20, Feb 24-27, Mar 3-6; Pre-quarters: March 12-15.