The BCCI has postponed the Ranji Trophy and the Women’s T20 League for 2021/22 as well as the Col CK Nayudu Trophy due to a surge in the coronavirus cases in India.
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The BCCI has postponed the Ranji Trophy, Col CK Nayudu Trophy, and the Senior Women’s T20 League due to a surge in coronavirus cases. India has reported close to 50,000 cases in the 24 hours as the Omicron variant surges in the country. For the second consecutive year, the Ranji Trophy has been postponed due to the coronavirus situation. The 2020/21 season was canceled due to the pandemic. The 2021/22 season was expected to begin from January 13 and go on till March 20. But, the rising caseload has forced the BCCI to postpone the events.
“BCCI does not want to compromise the safety of the players, support staff, match officials, and other participants involved. Hence, we decided to put the three tournaments on hold till further notice. The BCCI will continue to assess the situation and take a call at the start of the tournaments accordingly. BCCI thanks and continues to appreciate the efforts of the healthcare workers, state associations, players, support staff, match officials, and all the service providers who put their best foot forward to host more than 700 matches across 11 tournaments in the current 2021-22 domestic season,” a press release from the BCCI said.
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For the second year running, the coronavirus pandemic has wrecked the domestic schedule of the Indian cricket team. However, the postponement of the Women’s T20 League is bad news for the development of women’s cricket in the country. In the first wave, the Indian women’s cricket team did not play a single match for a year. All the other nations played series with each other but India and Sri Lanka did not.
The last time the senior Women’s T20 challenge was held, it was India Blue led by Mithali Raj that won the tournament. In the last two years, India women’s cricket team toured England and Australia to mixed success.
For the Ranji Trophy, postponement to a later date seems logistically impossible. The IPL is slated to begin on April 2 and the postponement of the Ranji Trophy will only complicate matters.
A BCCI source told cricket.com, “Ranji Trophy is to end on March 20 and with April 2 being formalized internally as the start of IPL. A postponement will not have any time left to finish the Ranji Trophy. There is no chance of shortening it either, with the tournament already being reduced drastically from the norm.”
