The Board of Control for Cricket in India released its domestic schedule for the upcoming 2022-23 season, with Duleep Trophy and the Irani Cup returning to the fold. The Indian cricket domestic season will run from the first week of September 2022 until mid-March 2023, with over 1,500 matches to be played across the men’s and women’s games.
The season will kickstart with the Duleep Trophy on September 8, with the competition returning after a three-year-long gap. The original zonal format has been retained with the new team for the North-East zone being added to the earlier list of North, South, East, West and Central, making it a six-team competition.
This will be followed by the Irani Cup (October 1-5), the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (October 11 to November 5) and the Vijay Hazare Trophy (November 12 to December 2). The two premier white-ball cricket competitions will be contested between 38 teams split into three groups of eight teams and two groups comprising seven teams.
With an aim to enhance the quality of its premier first-class competition, the board has decided to split the Ranji Trophy into two categories: Elite and Plate. The 2022-23 edition of the tournament will have two winners.
”The Elite Group will comprise 32 teams and will have 4 groups of 8 teams in a home and away format with each team playing 7 matches in the league stage. The top two teams from each of the four groups will directly qualify for the quarterfinals.”
“The Plate Group will comprise 6 teams with 15 league matches and the top 4 will directly qualify for the semi-final while the bottom two will play against each other for the 5th/6th place. Both the Elite Group and Plate Group league matches will start on 13th December with the Plate League concluding on 29th January and the Elite group finishing on 20th February,”
the official BCCI release stated on Monday.
The women’s calendar begins with the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy to be played between October 11 and concluding on November 5, keeping in view the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup is scheduled to take place in South Africa in February 2023. The Senior Women’s Interzonal T20 and T20 Challenger will be played between November 8-15 and November 20-26 respectively.
This will be followed by the 50-over format with Senior Women’s one-day Trophy and the inter-zonal one-day to be played from January 18 to February 7 and from February 12-21, respectively.
“Both the Senior Women’s Interzonal T20 and one-day have been re-introduced this season. For the first time, the Board will conduct a one-day tournament for girls at the U-16 level. The competition will help the girls get a feel of competitive cricket at a young age and help them make a smoother transition to the U-19 level,”
the release added.
The women’s domestic cricket calendar, which usually carries on till April will now finish in February, with the BCCI eyeing the March-April window to host the maiden edition of the Women’s Indian Premier League.
The planning for the same is already underway, as confirmed by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly recently. The board is contemplating a five to six team competition in its maiden season, with a final call to be made in the Annual General Meeting next month.
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