The opening round of Ranji Trophy matches will begin on February 17 after a five-day quarantine and the squad size including support staff is capped at 30 as the BCCI aims to stage a 38-team competition between nine different bio-bubbles. COVID-19 pandemic. The BCCI had earlier announced that the Ranji Trophy, scheduled to be held after two years due to the pandemic, would be held in two phases, before and after the IPL. On Tuesday, the board issued “staging guidelines” to the nine host associations.
The five-page document accessed by PTI said each squad can have a maximum of 30 members, including a minimum of 20 players, with the support staff numbering 10.
“20 players will be eligible for match fees (Playing XI will be eligible for 100 per cent while the rest will be entitled for 950 per cent),” the guidelines said. Each team will be allowed two COVID reserves.
The first round clash between defending champions Saurashtra and Mumbai in Ahmedabad will be much-awaited with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in their respective teams.
Pujara made it to the Saurashtra team on Tuesday while Rahane was included in the Mumbai team.
Both the experienced batsmen are in dire need of big runs and a century in the Ranji Trophy could help them get their Test careers back on track. All teams will gather at their respective places on February 10, after which the players will go into a mandatory five-day quarantine. The RT-PCR tests will be done on the second and fifth days, leaving the teams for two days of practice on February 15 and 16.
The pre-quarterfinals to be played in the first leg will be five days from March 11. Teams participating in the only round of 16 will have to undergo a four-day quarantine.
The second leg of the Ranji Trophy, comprising quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals, will be held from May 30, as announced earlier.
As per the guidelines, each team is “encouraged to have one physician to deal with the issues related to COVID-19”. The BCCI has increased the hosting fee to Rs 1.25 lakh per day per match. Earlier it used to be Rs 5 lakh for the entire game.
Thirty-two teams are divided into eight elite groups of four, while six teams make up the plate division.
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The pre-quarter finals will be between the lowest ranked qualified team from the eight elite groups and the plate group topper. 75 matches will be played in the first phase and seven matches in the second phase.
The venues are Rajkot, Cuttack, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi, Haryana, Guwahati and Kolkata.
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