No Ranji Trophy For First Time In 87 Years

New Delhi: The Ranji Trophy, India’s premier domestic first-class cricket tournament, won’t be held this season for the first time in 87 years.

Instead, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will be conducting the 50-overs-a-side Vijay Hazare Trophy during a domestic season which had to be curtailed and compromised due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reported PTI.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah were learnt to be keen to have the Ranji Trophy. But a two-month long bio-bubble even for a truncated Ranji Trophy would have been too time consuming.

The decision was finalized on Saturday after taking the views of the state units.

“I am extremely happy to inform you that we are going to conduct the Senior Women’s One-Day tournament simultaneously with the Vijay Hazare Trophy and follow it up with Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-19. This has been decided after having received your feedback on the domestic season 2020-21,” Shah wrote to state units.

“As you are aware, we have lost a lot of time and consequently, it has been difficult to plan the cricket calendar on account of the precautions that are necessary for the safe conduct of the games,” mentioned Shah.