On Wednesday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the newly formed Ranji Trophy format for the 2018/19 season that has been approved by the Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA). However, the BCCI technical committee and tours and fixtures committee has not welcomed the new format.
While all the 28 teams of the last season will play the Elite group, the new nine teams will play the Plate group. The Elite group will be divided into the three groups where nine teams will be allotted each in the Group A and Group B and the other ten teams will be seeded in the Group C.
Meanwhile, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim and Uttarakhand are the new nine teams who will compete in the Plate group.
Total five top teams from Group A and B, two top teams from Group C and the only the top-position team of Plate group will qualify for the Quarter-final round.
Also, the top-positioned Plate group team will be promoted to the Elite Group C for the next season while the bottom-placed team of Elite Group C will be relegated to the next season’s Plate group.
Moreover, the top two teams of the Elite Group C will be promoted to the next season’s Elite Group A and Group B while the bottom teams of the Elite Group A and Group B will be relegated to the next season’s Elite Group C.
Though the technical committee chief Sourav Ganguly is happy with the inclusion of the new teams, he has also clarified that he wasn’t consulted on this matter. The former Indian captain also feels that the board isn’t giving enough importance to the Plate group.
BCCI treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry told CricketNext that the recently announced promotion and relegation model isn’t similar with the earlier technical committee meeting in Kolkata.
He said, “I have always advocated for the North East states to field their full teams when they participate, this is obviously subject to availability of facilities, logistics etc. However, in the context of these fixtures that you are asking me, all I will say at this stage is that these fixtures do not reflect the decisions taken in the technical committee chaired by Sourav Ganguly and personally, I am somewhat skeptical of the effect that this format would have, especially from the point of view of promotions and relegations in this form.”
The tour and fixtures committee has been also surprised on the new format as they also believe that the Plate group is getting lesser importance.
One of their member told CricketNext, “This came as a surprise because you have to realise that if you don’t give the plate teams enough time to get ready for the level of competition that is witnessed in the Ranji Trophy and just draft the top team into the knockout stage, you might see their confidence taking a beating because the big boys of the league have been playing for years.
“Also, if the suggestions of the committees don’t mean anything, then why are you wasting time and energy of a legend like Ganguly? You have to understand that overlooking the point of the former India skipper is disrespecting not just the man, but also the committee which has other players with valuable cricketing knowledge.”
