The first phase of Ranji Trophy will take place from February 10-March 15 and "post IPL" phase from May 30-June 26, BCCI secretary Jay Shah informed state units on Thursday. Shah's letter made it clear that it is set to be one of the shortest first-class seasons with most teams getting to play only three matches which effectively means that increased match fees will not have an impact on most of the teams that will be ousted at the group league stage.
As PTI reported earlier, four teams each have been divided into eight elite groups while the remaining six form the plate division.
The tournament will have 64 games in 62 days with the first phase comprising 57 matches and the second stage having seven knock-out games which comprises four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and the final.
The elite group matches will be played in Rajkot, Cuttack, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Trivandrum, Delhi, Haryana and Guwahati. Plate league matches will be held in Kolkata.
Each team from elite group, barring one, will qualify for the quarterfinals. The lowest ranked qualified team from elite group will play plate toppers in the sole pre-quarterfinal.
According to the schedule and format released by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), there will be a total number of 64 matches to be played in 62 days across nine centres. Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Rajkot, Delhi, Guwahati, Cuttack, Trivandrum, Chennai and a Haryana centre will host the two-phase championship.
As first reported by Cricbuzz on January 30, the 38 teams have been divided into nine groups - eight Elite groups of four teams each and one plate group of six teams. Chandigarh and Meghalaya have been directly placed in the Elite division.
As per the format, Elite teams in a group play against each other, while the Plate teams will clash with only three teams of their group. One team from each Elite group qualifies for the quarter-finals, barring one which will have to play a pre-quarter-final game. The lowest-ranked of the eight qualifiers of Elite teams will have to take on the top-ranked side of the Plate group in the pre-quarterfinals. The quarterfinals draw will be held after the pre-quarter-finals.
As is already known, the two phases will be played on either side of the IPL (from March-end to May-end) and the first phase will have 57 games. The knockouts will have seven games that will start immediately after the IPL. Kolkata will host the Plate Group matches. No team is being allowed to play at home, with all the matches scheduled at neutral venues.
As per the circulated format, a maximum a team can get to play is seven matches while minimum matches will only be three for at least 29 teams across Elite and Plate Groups.
"We have spread the Ranji Trophy to nine different venues, across the country to mitigate any cross-transmission risk while also ensuring that bio-secure bubbles are not overburdened. While the persistent virus has still breached the bubble we have factored in certain contingency plans drawing from our past experience while formulating this structure," BCCI secretary Jay Shah wrote to the state units on Thursday (February 3).
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