The Ranji Trophy could return to the home-and-away format this year, with several domestic captains expected to pitch strongly for it at Tuesday’s BCCI Captains and Coaches conclave here.
It is learnt that many associations had reservations about the neutral venue idea, proposed at last year’s conclave in Dharamshala by the then BCCI president Anurag Thakur, but did not express them. Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel supported Thakur’s proposal, as did Punjab captain Harbhajan Singh.
However, the captains of Mumbai and Tamil Nadu, among others, indicated they were not happy with the format after the conclusion of their engagements. More than 50 matches ended in draws, with many teams complaining not only about the quality of the pitches, but also the umpiring and the frequent change of balls.
“The ground-staff at most venues did not prepare challenging wickets and many matches were drawn on flat decks,” said a captain who will be attending the conclave.
Mumbai coach Chandrakant Pandit had other ideas to make the league more interesting and competitive. “Why not scatter the good teams in three groups so that the weak teams will get opportunities to play against strong teams? Will this not improve Indian cricket? Last year, [traditional powerhouses] Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bengal were competing against each other in Group A,” said Pandit.
The conclave will also be attended by BCCI office bearers and Supreme Court-appointed CoA members.
