Neutral venues to be used across all tournaments as BCCI releases full domestic schedule
India’s men’s domestic calendar will begin with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on November 4, while the Ranji Trophy, the country’s premier first-class competition, starts on January 13, 2022. The Vijay Hazare Trophy will get underway from December 8, with neutral venues being used across all tournaments.
In an extensive list of domestic fixtures released by the BCCI on Monday, the board also confirmed that Delhi will host the Syed Mushtaq Ali final, on November 22, while Kolkata will stage the Ranji finale, on March 16.
The Ranji Trophy will begin after the teams complete a five-day quarantine, with the matches being held at Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Trivandrum and Chennai. Kolkata will host all the knockout matches, which will begin on February 20 after the teams serve another five-day quarantine period.
The tournament will consist of six groups, including five Elite ones of six teams each and one Plate group featuring eight teams.
Domestic heavyweights Mumbai, Karnataka and Delhi have been clubbed together in Elite Group C, while defending champions Saurashtra have been paired with Tamil Nadu, Railways, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Goa in Elite group D. Last year’s runners-up Bengal will begin their campaign in Elite Group B alongside Vidarbha, Haryana, Kerala, Tripura and Rajasthan. The Plate group will comprise Chandigarh, Meghalya, Bihar, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh.
The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, meanwhile, will be held across Lucknow, Guwahati, Baroda, Delhi, Haryana and Vijayawada, with the knockouts starting in Delhi from November 16. The BCCI, however, did not announce the venues for the Vijay Hazare Trophy yet.
The Men’s Under-25 State A one-day competition will be held from November 20 to December 10, with Bangalore hosting the knockouts, including the final on December 10. The four-day CK Nayudu Trophy will run from January 28 to March 31. Nagpur, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Mohali, Jaipur and Ranchi will host all the matches, with the knockouts being held exclusively at Vijayawada.
Meanwhile, the Women’s Under-19 One Day Fixtures will be begin on September 28 and run till October 18, with teams split into five Elite Groups and one Plate Group. Rajkot, Nagpur, Bhubaneshwar, Vizag, Surat and Jaipur will host all the matches, with Surat hosting the knockout phase, from October 11 after the teams complete a mandatory five-day quarantine period. The Senior Women’s One Day tournament gets underway on October 31, with Bangalore hosting the final, on November 20.