India‘s premier first-class tournament Ranji Trophy is all set to be held in two phases on either side of IPL 2022. It has been confirmed that the first phase will start on February 10 and will conclude on March 15. While the knockout round will start on May 30 and will finish on June 26.
In a letter to all state-affiliated units, BCCI secretary Jay Shah shared the details of the tournament.
Ranji Trophy was cancelled in the season 2020-21
“I am pleased to share that we are now truly set to resume both international and domestic cricket with full thrust. The coming months are going to be replete with cricketing action. We have waited patiently for the grip of the pandemic to loosen and the time has come for our cricketers to take center-stage all over again,” Jay Shah wrote in the letter.
“We have spread out the Ranji Trophy to 9 different venues across the country to mitigate any cross-transmission risk while ensuring the bio-secure bubble is not overburdened,” he added.
There are a total of 8 elite groups and one plate group. Each elite group will have 4 teams while the plate group will have 6 teams. One team from each elite group will qualify for the knockouts. The lowest-ranked among all 8 qualified teams will play a pre-quarterfinal game against table-toppers of the plate group. There will be a total of 65 matches to be played which include 8 knockout games.
Groups and Venues are as follows.
Elite Group A: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, and Meghalaya (Venue: Rajkot)
Elite Group B: Bengal, Baroda, Hyderabad, Chandigarh (Venue: Cuttack)
Elite Group C: Karnataka, Railways, Jammu and Kashmir, Pondicherry (Venue: Chennai)
Elite Group D: Saurashtra, Mumbai, Odisha, Goa (Venue: Ahmedabad)
Elite Group E: Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Services, and Uttarakhand (Venue: Trivandrum)
Elite Group F: Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, and Tripura (Venue: Delhi)
Elite Group G: Vidharbha, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Assam (Venue: Haryana)
Elite Group H: Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, and Chattisgarh (Venue: Guwahati)
Plate Group: Bihar, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh (Venue: Kolkata)
The venues for the knockout games will be announced later.
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