BCCI to conduct Ranji Trophy 2022 in two phases: Jay Shah

The Board has decided to conduct the Ranji Trophy this season in two phases. In the first phase, we plan to complete all matches of the league stage while the knockouts will be held in June: BCCI Secretary Jay Shah

(File photo) pic.twitter.com/4ndfCyYq2B

— ANI (@ANI) January 28, 2022

The domestic tournament was scheduled to start on January 13 this year but was postponed indefinitely by the BCCI due to the third wave of the pandemic.

Excellent initiative to try and get the Ranji Trophy going. It was much needed for both, the first class cricketers and, in a larger context, for Indian cricket

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) January 28, 2022

Shah’s statement came after former head coach Ravi Shastri on Friday said that Indian cricket would become “spineless” if the currently postponed Ranji Trophy is ignored. “The Ranji Trophy is the backbone of Indian cricket. The moment you start ignoring it our cricket will be SPINELESS!,” Shastri tweeted.

BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal, after a meeting of the Board on Thursday, also said that the body intends to hold the marquee domestic tournament in “two phases”. This is because the BCCI is planning to start the IPL from March 27 and it will be practically impossible to hold the Ranji Trophy at a stretch.

Dhumal had said this after many state units and the BCCI brass held a meeting to discuss the way forward. The meeting was also attended by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah.

As of now, the plan is to hold the league phase for a month, starting in February till March and then have the next phase in June-July, when the monsoon starts in a lot of parts of the country with peak summer in some other parts.