Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly on Thursday said that the new Ranji Trophy structure released by the BCCI may well hamper the importance of first-class cricket in India.
Ganguly, a member of the cricket board’s technical committee that had played a major role in the inclusion of the North-Eastern states, Puducherry and Bihar in the country’s top-most cricket tier, claimed that the committee’s suggestions were not taken into consideration when the new domestic schedule was released.
As per the revamped domestic schedule, Ranji Trophy will consists of an Elite and a Plate group. The Elite group will be divided into A, B and C sub-groups, while the Plate group will have one sub-group: D.
Groups A and B and D will have nine teams, while group C will have 10 teams. Under the new rules, top five teams from groups A and B, two from group C and another one from Plate group D will reach the quarterfinals. It also states that the top team from the group D which qualifies for the quarter-finals, will be promoted to Elite A and B next season. Meanwhile, the team that finishes at the bottom of group C will be demoted to the plate group.
“It has been done. So the people concerned will have to find a way to get around it. In the past, the Elite and Plate groups had been abolished, because it was felt that the performances in the Plate Group weren’t given enough recognition,” Ganguly told Indian Express on Thursday also confirming that the technical committee had proposed a different schedule.
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The technical committee headed by left-handed batsman had suggested the introduction of a Division B in the Ranji Trophy, which will comprise of the newly introduced teams. They had also proposed the introduction of a qualifying league that will be played between the top-two teams of the Plate group and the bottom-placed teams of the Elite groups. The two finalists that will qualify for the final will play the Ranji Trophy in the upcoming season.
Their suggestions were however not adhered to, when the revamped First-Class structure was announced on July 18 by the BCCI general body. The 2017-18 season will kick off with Duleep Trophy matches starting from August 17.
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“I think, it’s because of the current situation in the BCCI (this has happened),” said Ganguly referring to the cricket board’s continued tussle with the Supreme Court and its appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) body.
The newly introduced teams in the top-tier of first-class cricket are Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Bihar, Puducherry and Uttarakhand.