BCCI likely to start domestic season in October - Reports

Victorious Mumbai celebrating their Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021 win. (PC: BCCI)

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is planning to kick off the 2021-22 domestic season in October, Dainik Jagran reported on Saturday. The board is looking at two broad plans for the same, depending on the prevalent COVID-19 pandemic situation in the coming months.

If India gets some relief from the pandemic, the BCCI is ready to host a total of 1971 domestic matches between October 1, 20201 and April 12, 2022. But if the situation doesn't see much change, which is more likely, the domestic cricketers will have to settle for 1487 matches between October 15 and April 20.

Last season, the BCCI could only organize the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy, putting a major financial strain on domestic cricketers.

However, this time around, the Ranji Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, and CK Nayudu Trophy are all set to resume in the men's category apart from the Vizzy Trophy, three Under-19, one Under-23 and one Under-16 competition. For women cricketers, all four senior-level competitions, three Under-19 and two Under-23 tournaments will also be organized.

BCCI all in for group-based divisions to mitigate the pandemic's impact

As per the second plan, the BCCI will conduct all the aforementioned tournaments even if the pandemic situation persists, but with some restrictions.

There will be a seven-day quarantine period for all teams before each tournament. The sides will be divided into six groups and the points system will be adjusted to reduce the total number of matches. The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will be similar to the 2020-21 season.

Meanwhile, in another good news for domestic cricketers, the BCCI has also lined up a proposal for increasing the match fees of most domestic games by up to 90 percent depending on the players' experience.