The much-awaited Ranji Trophy is scheduled for the season 2016-17 has been finalized by the BCCI on Friday with the national cricket championship, which is slated to start on October 6, with the final set to run from January 7 to 11, 2017.
Ranji Trophy
The new format, according to the Board sources, had been finalised almost two months back since the tournament was at neutral venues. “The delay was caused as we had lots of technical issues to further tackle which the Lodha Committee did not consider,” said the source. The Lodha Committee had further instructed the Board to field a combined team of the North-East states in the Ranji Trophy.
“It was not possible as the North-East states did not have even 15 registered players. With a great level of difficulty we have included them in the under-16 and under-19 categories,” the source added.
The ground realities that had confronted the Board in the case of the North-East team’s participation have further delayed the finalisation of the schedule.
The entire exercise had to be then redone, but Chhattisgarh has found favour, having come through the ranks.
According to the schedule, no match of a particular group will be played at the venues of the teams from the same group. No team will be further getting to play at the same venue twice. Ten curators from the five zones have been instructed that the best playing conditions be offered.
