Ranji Trophy: Mumbai clubbed with champions Saurashtra

Jay Shah. Pic/Suresh Karkera

The much-awaited schedule of the Ranji Trophy has finally been circulated to all state associations by the BCCI on Thursday.

As reported earlier by this newspaper, the BCCI has divided the premier first-class tournament into two halves - pre and post-IPL.

The league stage will be held from February 10 to March 15 when 38 teams (eight Elite groups comprising four teams each and one Plate group of six) will compete in 57 matches across nine venues (Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Rajkot, Haryana, Delhi, Guwahati, Cuttack, Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai).

New format

Each team will get to play three league games. One team from the Elite group will qualify for the quarter-final. "The lowest-ranked qualified team from the Elite group will play the top-ranked team from the Plate group in the pre-quarters," the BCCI stated in the document, a copy of which is with mid-day.

The seven knockout matches will be held between May 30 and June 26. "The lowest-ranked qualified team from the Elite group will play the top-ranked team from the Plate group in the pre-quarters," the BCCI stated in the document, a copy of which is with mid-day. Forty-one time champions Mumbai have been pitted against defending champions Saurashtra in Elite Group D which also has Odisha and Goa. All their matches will be held at Ahmedabad.

Five-day quarantine

The players are likely to remain in quarantine for five days."I am pleased to share that we are now set to resume, both international and domestic cricket, with full thrust. We have waited patiently for the grip of the pandemic to loosen, and the time has come for our cricketers to take centrestage all over again. We have spread out the Ranji Trophy to nine venues to mitigate any cross transmission risk while also ensuring bio-secure bubbles are not over-burdened," BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in his communication to the state associations.