For the second consecutive year, Ranji Trophy- India‘s premier first-class tournament is all set to be dismissed.
It was originally scheduled to take place from January 2022 but the BCCI decided to postpone all domestic tournaments amid a covid outbreak in the last month or so. BCCI was planning to reschedule in two parts on either side of IPL but it’ll unlikely to go ahead due to lack of window.
As per reports, the BCCI hasn’t made any official communications with state associations as yet but they have given up all hopes if India’s premier domestic tournament would go ahead this season. On January 4, BCCI suspended all domestic tournaments including Ranji Trophy Cooch Behar, CK Nayudu, and the senior women’s T20.
Though BCCI was committed to go ahead with Ranji Trophy to start in mid-February, on a meeting on Tuesday they decided to scrap the tournament. If it would have started in mid-February, they would have finished the group stage before IPL. And the knockout stage would have taken place in June-July but this is monsoon season in most parts of India then. So BCCI had no choice but to scrap the tournament.
But questions will be asked again if BCCI doesn’t prioritize the red-ball cricket as in the previous season too, BCCI organized both white-ball tournaments- Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy but they couldn’t find a window for Ranji Trophy.
In November, Tamil Nadu beat Karnataka by 4 wickets in the final to win the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy while Himachal Pradesh created history to beat Tamil Nadu in the final to Vijay Hazare Trophy.
This is another setback for the players who have ambitions to represent India in the red-ball format as they don’t have any tournaments to prove their utility other than A-tours. Recently India A travelled to South A just before the senior’s team. Those matches were only first-class matches for players other than Test cricket in this season.
Dear red ball, please give me one more chance.. I’ll make you proud, promise! pic.twitter.com/ThPUOpRlyR
— Jaydev Unadkat (@JUnadkat) January 4, 2022
Recently when BCCI decided to postpone Ranji Trophy, veteran pacer Jaydev Unadkat tweeted, “Dear red ball, please give me one more chance.. I’ll make you proud, promise!”