Zoom News : Jul 04, 2021, 06:58 AM
Cricket Desk: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced bumper 2021/22 domestic season. The board will be conducting a total of 2127 domestic matches which kicks off on September 21. The season will mark the comeback of the Ranji Trophy, which didn't take place in 2020/21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The BCCI was forced to shorten the season last year and only conducted Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in the men's division. The BCCI also organised women's matches.The 2021/22 season will kick off with the Women's One Day League, which will be followed by Challenger Trophy. The Challenger Trophy is a tournament where the best players from the List A league are picked. There will be 160 matches in the One Day League while the Challenger Trophy comprises 4 matches.The men's cricket will kick off on October 20 with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The tournament includes as many as 149 matches. 4 days after the T20 league, the players will switch to red-ball cricket to take part in Ranji Trophy, which wil take place from November 16 to February 19, 2022.After a break of 4 days following the Ranji Trophy, the players will be back in action for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. There wil be 177 matches in Ranji Trophy and 169 matches in Vijay Hazare Trophy. The junior players will take part in U-23, U-19 and U-16 competitions.The women cricketers will play the One Day league, Challenger Trophy and the T20 league, which includes 142 matches. The junior women players will compete in U-23 and U-19 competitions.The upcoming domestic season will be the first time when the BCCI will stage matches in India since May. The 2nd wave of COVID-19 impacted the board and the BCCI was forced to suspend the IPL 2021 in the first week of May. The tournament will resume in September, in UAE.