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Saturday, December 14, 2024

Ganguly-led technical committee calls for Ranji overhaul

Mumbai: The Sourav Ganguly-led technical committee of the Indian cricket board Tuesday called for overhauling the Ranji Trophy and recommended doing away with the Elite and Plate divisions.The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) technical committee, that met here Tuesday at the Cricket Centre, discussed the issue at length for over two hours and opined that the Elite and Plate groups be replaced by three groups of nine teams each.”We have recommended two major changes in the Ranji Trophy format. There will be nine teams in three groups — A, B and C. Each team will play eight matches in the league stage and there will be promotion and relegation,” Ganguly told reporters after the meeting.”The changes will make the competition even and each team will play a few more matches. But all these are recommendations and the BCCI working committee will take the final decision,” he added.Each team will play eight matches at the league stage. Three teams each from groups A and B and two from group C will qualify for the knockout phase. The committee also proposed that quarterfinals, semifinals and the final should be five-day affairs. According to the current format only the final is a five-day affair.If in the knock-out phase, a result on first innings is not obtained at the end of the fifth day, then the match will be extended into a sixth day. If there is no outcome on first innings even at the end of the sixth day, then the winner will be decided on the spin of a coin.For an outright win, teams will get six points. A bonus win – by an innings or by 10 wickets — will fetch teams one bonus point. If the teams are tied on both innings then they would get three points each.A first innings lead but no outright win will fetch a team three points while loss on first innings will get a team one point. Tie on first innings without outright result will give teams one point each.The committee also felt that the domestic tournaments should be played in the following order — Duleep Trophy, Challenger Trophy, Ranji Trophy, Irani Cup, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Deodhar Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. There will be two Irani Cup games from the 2012-13 season.The committee also made changes in the playing condition in domestic limited over games. It felt that a bowler should be permitted a maximum of twelve overs per match and two bouncers per over. There will be no change in the prevalent rule pertaining to the number of fielders allowed outside the thirty-yard circle in non-Powerplay overs.

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