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Ranji Trophy to begin on January 5
Follow UsThe tournament will last for 70 days and end on March 14, with the knockouts beginning on Feb 23
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) released the schedule for the upcoming domestic cricket season (2023-24). Ranji Tophy, the premier first-class domestic competition, begins on the fifth of January.
Zonal tournaments mark the beginning of the season, with the Duleep Trophy (zonal first class) being played first from June 28 to July 16. This will be followed by Deodhar Trophy (zonal List A) from July 24 to August 4.
As per Cricbuzz, the domestic white ball tournaments will begin in October. Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the domestic T20 competition, will be held from October 16 to November 6. Post this will be Vijay Hazare Trophy, the domestic OD competition. It will be played between November 23 and December 15.
Barring zonal tournaments, all others will have two divisions - Elite and Plate. While the white-ball tournaments will see three groups of eight in the former and two groups of seven in the latter, the red-ball tournament will have four groups of eight in Elite and just one group of six in Plate.
The BCCI has provided the groupings and explained the rationale behind it too. The key factors for the groupings
- Points Table from the 2022-23 season were taken into account.
- All Elite teams were ranked based on their performance: winners, runners-up, semifinal losers 1 & 2, quarterfinal losers 1, 2, 3, and 4, using points, bonus points, number of wins, and quotient.
- The remaining teams were grouped and ranked based on points, bonus points, wins, and quotient until the league stage.
- The bottom two teams from all Elite Groups (A/B/C/D) combined, based on points, bonus points, wins, and quotient, were relegated to the Plate Group.
- The winners and runners-up from the Plate Group were promoted to Elite Group A and B, respectively.
Based on this logic, groups for the upcoming Ranji Trophy are as follows
Elite Group A: Saurashtra, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Vidarbha, Haryana, Services, and Manipur.
Elite Group B: Bengal, Andhra, Mumbai, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and Bihar.
Elite Group C: Karnataka, Punjab, Railways, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Gujarat, Tripura, and Chandigarh.
Elite Group D: Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Baroda, Delhi, Odisha, Pondicherry, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Plate Group: Nagaland, Hyderabad, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh.