Several sources have confirmed that the Ranji Trophy 2022, which had been postponed earlier in the aftermath of the Covid-19 rise in India, would now begin on February 16.
Because of the pandemic situation, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been forced to adopt a new format for the premier domestic tournament this year. Eight groups of four teams each will be featured, with the six teams placed in one Plate group, with all games being played at the same time.
According to the initial concept, the groupings consisted of 30 Elite teams and eight Plate teams. However, according to the current plan, the combination will consist of 32 Elite teams and six Plate teams.
The group stage matches would be contested in nine cities, according to the revised schedule: Chennai, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Rajkot, Cuttack, Guwahati, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. The finals will be held in the same nine locations as the group stage matches.
However, because of the Covid-imposed time limitation, the BCCI was unable to implement its original suggestion of a six-group system with six teams in each group. Furthermore, with the 15th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) planned to begin in late March and last through the final week of May, the BCCI was naturally in a race against time.
The Ranji Trophy 2022 will be hosted in two parts before and after IPL 2022
According to current plans, the event will be contested in two parts, one on each side of the 2022 IPL, with the league stage running between February 16 and March 5 and the knockout stages taking place in June, with the IPL scheduled between the two phases.
“The Ranji Trophy will be held in two stages this season, as approved by the board. “We want to finish all of the league stage matches in the first phase, with the knockout stages taking place in June,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a press release earlier this month.
The Ranji Trophy was originally scheduled to begin on January 13, but it has been postponed indefinitely due to the growing pandemic scenario, with India fighting a dreadful third wave of the disease. “The BCCI does not want to jeopardise the safety of the players, support personnel, match officials, and other participants engaged and has, as a result, chosen to postpone the three events till further notice,” Shad had said in a press statement.
This is the second year in a straight that Covid-19 has had a negative influence on India’s domestic cricket league. Last year, the Ranji Trophy was cancelled in its entirety for the first time in its 85-year existence.
