MUMBAI: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Monday announced the schedule of India’s domestic cricket season 2022-23. Over 1,500 matches will be held during the season that will commence in the first week of September 2022 and run until mid-March 2023.
The prestigious Duleep Trophy will mark the start of a full-fledged season, which will also see a return of the Irani Cup. The Duleep Trophy (September 8-September 25) will be contested between six zones (North, South, Central, West, East and Northeast) on a knockout basis.
The two multi-day tournaments will be followed by the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The two white-ball tournaments will be contested between 38 teams split into three groups of 8 teams and two groups comprising 7 teams.
The Ranji Trophy, India’s premier domestic tournament, will have two categories; 1) Elite and 2) Plate. 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 December 13 with the Plate League concluding on January 29 and the Elite group finishing on February 20.
As the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup is scheduled to take place in South Africa in February 2023, the women’s calendar begins with the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy starting on October 11 and concluding on November 5. It will then be followed by the Senior Women’s Interzonal T20 and T20 Challenger. The 50-over format will then take over with Senior Women’s one-day Trophy and the inter-zonal one-day.
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.
Since South Africa will also host the inaugural ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup in January, the women’s U19 T20 Trophy and Women’s U19 T20 Challenger have been scheduled from 1st October 1 to November 7. (ANI)