The Hindu : New look Duleep Trophy from today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 12, 2003

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Sport - Cricket

New look Duleep Trophy from today

By Our Sports Reporter

CHENNAI MARCH 11. The structural change made to the Duleep Trophy is related to that of the Ranji Trophy, the format of which was changed to the two-tier system (Elite and Plate competitions) this season.

The modifications to the Ranji format, which was earlier contested within the zone first with the qualifiers making it to the next stage, had elicited a mixed response. Why drop something that has served well for so many years, was the question that many asked.

Looking back, now that the Ranji Trophy (Elite) has come to the semifinal stage and the new-look Duleep Trophy (four-day contests, all-play-all league) kicks off on Wednesday with Elite-A meeting Plate-A at the Chidambaram Stadium and Elite-B locking horns with Plate-B at the ICL-Guru Nanak College ground here, one gets the feeling that national competitions have finally achieved the national perspective.

The Duleep Trophy, earlier an inter-zonal event, will now be played between five teams, three of which comprise players from states that competed in the Elite group and the other two from states that contested the Plate event.

The change in format has now made the National selectors responsible for the National selection overall, for it is they who have picked the sides with no option but do it with the objective of finding out who is good for India.

The new format has also ensured that regional factors don't interfere much. In the past, when zonal committees selected their respective sides, state associations exerted pressure, which would invariably show in the end result. Quotas had to be provided and looked after, which hopefully will not be the case anymore.

The new format, both in Ranji and Duleep, actually provides the selectors with more options, while the cricketers will also feel confident that performances will be rewarded.

There is balance in the five sides that have been picked, the kind that could not be achieved in the zonal format. Like, for example, bowling attacks in the past were either lop-sided owing to the presence of two or more star purveyors of the same art, both of whom had to be played.

There have also been instances when cricketers have withered due to lack of opportunities owing to the presence of a better-quality purveyor of the same art in the zone. These will be negated now.

R.S. Sodhi (Elite-A), Rohan Gavaskar (Elite-B), S.S. Das (Elite-C), Hrishikesh Kanitkar (Plate-A) and J. Arun Kumar (Plate-B) have been named captains of the five teams.

While the absence of stars is certain to take some sheen away, the positive side is that it presents an opportunity to 30 other cricketers who might have never got the chance otherwise.

The fixtures:

March 12-15: Elite-A v Plate-A (Chennai), Elite-B v Plate-B (Chennai).

March 20-23: Elite-C v Elite-A (Hyderabad), Plate-A v Plate-B (Bangalore).

March 27-30: Elite-B v Elite-C (Vijayawada), Elite-A v Plate-B (Bangalore).

April 3-6: Plate-A v Elite-C (Hyderabad), Elite-A v Elite-B (Bangalore).

April 10-13: Plate-A v Elite-B (Chennai), Plate-B v Elite-C (Kochi).

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