When BCCI organised a pink ball Duleep Trophy last year, the board made every effort to make it a success.
Out of contention, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina were announced as the captain to lead the three different sides and a large public thronged in the stadium to see their international stars turning up with the new coloured ball making its first-class debut in India.
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Before this experiment, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) had already experimented with the pink ball when a final of their local league was played with it and was also televised but the Duleep Trophy reached more masses, due to the presence of international stars in the team.
The pink ball received a positive review from the players and the board also thought to organise one Ranji game for all teams with a pink ball. However, the idea was later dropped and with the axing of Anurag Thakur as BCCI chief, the idea was put on a back seat. When the inaugural edition of Duleep Trophy with the pink ball was played, there were chances of it staying in India for long but now, this isn’t the case.
It looks like the board is all set to scrap the pink ball tournament due to no discussion over the future of the same in India. In addition to that, a board official has also objected playing with the pink ball in the country,
“With India having different playing conditions, there is also a huge question mark over the future of pink ball. It may not work well here in this part of the world,” a board official told PTI.
If this happens, then it will be the first time after two years when Duleep Trophy will be back to its original format. It is to be noted that the domestic competition was omitted from 2015/16 season and last year, BCCI experimented with the tournament by turning it into a pink ball contest.
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The final decision on the matter will be taken on August 2, where BCCI will announce the fixtures for the domestic season 2017/18. Along with that, the fixtures for the upcoming long home season, comprising of 23 games will also be announced. A decision on the format of Ranji Trophy will also be taken under the supervision of CAB president Sourav Ganguly.
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