IPL Affects Domestic Cricket As Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Set To Be Postponed

BCCI's priority is to complete the 14th season of IPL and this is affecting the domestic cricket tournament in India. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy will not be organised in September.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected India's domestic cricket to a great extent. The completion of the Indian Premier League season 14 remains a priority for the BCCI and as a result, the domestic cricket would get pushed to the last week of October. Last year also, the Ranji Trophy could not be organized due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The remaining 31 matches of IPL 14 will be held in UAE from 19 September to 15 October. Many domestic players take part in IPL and it is directly affecting the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. The Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament was to be played in September, but now it will not start at its scheduled time.

The state association officials are not in favour of overlapping the IPL with other domestic leagues like the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.  The state association official said, "The mega auction for IPL 2022 is expected this year. Two new teams can be included in IPL. In such a situation, interest in the Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament is expected to rise. It should not clash with the remaining matches of the IPL, otherwise the standard of the domestic T20 tournament will fall."

Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament will not start in September

There seems to be no possibility of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament starting in September. Another state association official said, "Unfortunately there has been no concrete discussion with the Board of Control for Cricket in India regarding the domestic season. The situation with the Covid-19 is yet to stabilise in the country which has resulted in changing the venue of the T20 World Cup outside India. What we know as per sources is that the board will wait to fix the date. But the T20 tournament probably won't happen in September."

Ranji Trophy has not been organized since last season and unless the situation of the Covid-19 improves it seems unlikely that it will happen in 2021. Due to delays in domestic cricket, the local cricketers have been badly affected. The BCCI has not yet taken any major step to provide any relief to these players.