Two-tier format for Ranji Trophy mooted

By Our Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI, MAY 15. On the lines of the National Football League, a two-tier format for the Ranji Trophy championship has been proposed to attract international players to play in the domestic tournaments.

The Technical Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will deliberate on the far-reaching proposal forwarded by the West Zone Cricket Association, at its meeting here on Wednesday.

If accepted in toto, the top flight teams in each zones will be fighting it out among themselves to stay afloat in the elite group. The two bottom-placed teams would be relegated to the lower group for the next season giving more meaning to the contests, according to the proposal.

Apart from the modifications to the Ranji Trophy format, minor revamping of other domestic tournaments including Duleep Trophy, would also be discussed at the meeting to be headed by the Technical Committee Chairman, Sunil Gavaskar.

The Board Secretary, Mr.Jaywant Lele, is the convenor of the committee which also has Messrs Jyoti Bajpai, Chandu Borde, Kiran More, M. P. Pandove, G. Vinod, Kamal Das, Raj Singh Dungarpur, M. Bhargava and R. S. Rathore.

There is a feeling among the members that there is no point in playing the Duleep Trophy matches on a league basis as most of the senior cricketers were not taking it seriously. The West Zone proposal suggests that Duleep Trophy be played on a knock-out basis.

As regards to the Ranji Trophy format, the 15 teams from the five zones that qualified for the knock-out tournament in the 2000- 2001 season, would be divided into two groups A and B to be played on round-robin league basis.

The remaining 12 teams which failed to make it to the knock-out phase would be grouped in two separate groups C and D for another league. The teams finishing last in Group A and B would be relegated to the lower group, while the winners of C and D respectively would be promoted to the top group, the proposal says. This would at least ensure that some good teams playing each other.

The under-19 inter-zonal tournament for the C K Nayudu Trophy, which is played on a three-day knock-out basis, is also expected to be changed to a one-day league format. However, there is no proposal to change the format of the Cooch Behar trophy, the under-19 version of the Ranji Trophy.

While the proposal of West Zone would be high on the agenda, the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), has forwarded a two-point proposal demanding greater emphasis on junior cricket.

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Section  : Sport
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