Major Changes announced by BCCI in Domestic Schedule for 2015-16

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the schedule for the domestic season 2015-16 today. The domestic season would be starting in October later this year and would end by March next year.

All in all, the BCCI has planned to schedule 900 matches through nine month calendar year which is roughly equivalent to 2100 cricket years. On the advice of the committee led by none other than Anil Kumble, the Deodhar Trophy will feature 4 one day matches over the 5 days and will be held from January 24-January 28th.

The format of the Deodhar trophy has been changed which will now feature 3 one day teams, thus giving the young crop of players from all 5 zones a greater chance of making to the India team. It will be similar to NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, which has always featured 3 teams (India Blue, India Red, India Green). One of the teams in Deodhar Trophy would be the winner of Vijay Hazare Trophy, and the other two teams would be selected on the basis of performance in Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Vijay Hazare Trophy’s format is also set to undergo a change, that is from zonal to knock-out as all teams on basis of performance will now be divided into groups just like Ranji Trophy.

The official release stated, “The Deodhar trophy will be played on a 3-team format which comprises of the champion team of the Vijay Hazare tournament and 2 other teams which will be selected by the Senior National selectors. Starting this year, the senior Men One day and the T20 tournaments will be played on a Group basis( like Ranji Trophy) and not on Intra Zonal basis. Being the first time, the teams have been divided into 4 groups and these groups have been made based on last year’s performance in the respective tournaments.”

Apart from the above changes, a few new tournaments will be started now. One of them is going to be a new Under-19 Challenger tournament, which will have three teams selected by the Junior National Selectors and provide another opportunity to all the players to perform, before the national squad is selected for the Under-19 World Cup, which will be played in Bangladesh next year.

Changes have also been made in Women’s Cricket too, with 2 new tournaments to be introduced. One Inter state and one Inter Zonal One day Under-23 tournament and a three-day Senior Women Inter Zonal tournament will be started in the forthcoming one day season.

BCCI Secretary, Anurag Thakur said, “This year we have re structured the domestic schedule based on our international commitments and prevailing weather conditions in the country. We wanted to release the schedule well in advance so that the state associations and teams have enough time to plan and prepare. Domestic cricket is paramount to us and BCCI will continuously strive to improve the standards and ensure the supply line to Indian team is in great shape.”