COVID-19: BCCI May Cut Down On Domestic Tournaments, Revert Back To Zonal System For Matches

BCCI may revert to Zonal system for white ball cricket tournaments this season, likely to cull domestic calendar by half in wake of the persistent COVID-19 threat

New Delhi: Under pressure to reopen its operations and resume cricketing activities, the BCCI has been slowly waking up to the requirements. On priority right now for the BCCI staff and apex council is following up on the petition in Supreme Court on the tenure of its president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah --whose term ends in July and June respectively, however it is expected that some of the attention will also be focussed towards resumption of cricketing activities for Team India and domestic cricketers. 

There have been developments over holding a camp for Team India from June 15 onwards at the NCA in Bengaluru and possible south Africa tour, plans are also afoot to draw a schedule for domestic cricket which starts traditionally starts from September.

As per information, BCCI officials are keen to cut down on the number of tournaments in the post- Covid year, with only the basic tournaments under consideration. The BCCI may look to cut down on Duleep and Deodhar Trophy on the senior front while looking to start the season with Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, keeping in mind the impending IPL. Cutting down on tournaments was also required to help insert the IPL which will eat two months of domestic cricket calendar.

The board is also keen that white ball cricket will be played only on zonal basis --teams will be divided into five zones --- to ensure minimum travel between teams and look into the possibility of road travel, thus making it even safer for the players to remain in bio-secure environment. Ranji Trophy, for the moment, will remain in Elite-Plate mode hoping that that situation will be better towards the fag end of the season.

The BCCI, which has been in the recent years, added several age-group tournaments, including for women, may revert back to its old schedule keeping just one tournament per age group.

Over the years, the BCCI has often tried to cut down the clutter of domestic tournaments, which has remained of less relevance for both selectors and Team india players but was faced with severe criticism and resistance from shelving tournaments named after legends of Indian cricket. Faced with no other option and limited resources in the Covid times, the BCCI may finally keep the domestic calendar to bare minimum.