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After the Covid-19 pandemic had catastrophic consequences due to the second wave, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided upon postponing the 2021-22 Indian domestic circuit tournaments for safety reasons. However, as the situation all around the country is being stabilized, BCCI has released the revised schedule for Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at neutral venues. This will be the first time since the 2016-17 season, that all the tournaments shall be staged at neutral venues.
It has been decided that every team squad across all the listed domestic tournaments can have a maximum of 30 members, among which 10 should be support staff members. Furthermore, the upcoming domestic season shall feature six different group-stage matches being held at different venues for each tournament for men and women respectively.
In addition, the home team from each group will be made to play at another venue. All the mentioned tournaments also specify tournament dates beside the match schedule. Almost 20 state cricket associations have been allotted the revised domestic calendar.
Ranji Trophy
This tournament shall commence from January 13 and league games shall be played until February 10, 2022. From February 20, the knockout stage shall begun at Kolkata. After which the finals shall be played from March 16 to March 20, 2022.
Ranji Trophy shall be returning after a year’s absence from the domestic circuit and will be held at Mumbai (Group A), Bengaluru (Group B), Kolkata (Group C), Ahmedabad (Group D), Thiruvananthapuram (Group E), Chennai (Plate Group).
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy
This Indian domestic tournament shall begin from November 4, and the league games shall be played until November 9, 2021. After which the knockout games will be played from November 16 to 22, 2021 at New Delhi.
The venues for the group stage will be at Lucknow for Group A, Guwahati for Group B, Baroda for Group C, Delhi for Group D, Haryana for Group E and Vijaywada for the concluding Plate Group.
Vijay Hazare Trophy
With six group allotted in this tournament as well, the venues have not yet been decided upon by BCCI. However this tournament shall commence from December 8, 2021. The league games will be played until December 14, after which the knockout games are scheduled from December 21-27, 2021.