The Committee of Administrators (CoA)-approved mammoth and new domestic season appears to have stumped the BCCI members. The Board members, state association officials have no option but to accept the inclusion of the northeast states and hitherto disputed state associations from being brought into the fold of structured first class, List A and junior cricket. But they were shocked as to how 2,000 matches announced as per the new schedule were to be organised and conducted, with bulk of the matches being hosted by states. Former India captain, president of Cricket Association of Bengal and chairman of BCCI technical committee, Sourav Ganguly, too has expressed his disappointment with certain aspects of the competition and scheduling, especially that of the Ranji Trophy.
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They questioned the wisdom of the BCCI officials who worked on this schedule, given that there will emerge a paucity of qualified umpires and stadia to conduct all the matches outlined.
As per the schedule, the upcoming 2018-19 domestic would see 37 Ranji Trophy matches featuring nine new teams this season. The same goes for the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy.
“We will have 97 umpires and 54 match referees available in the new season. While the number of match referees remain sufficient, we will fall short of umpires. The season starts barely two months later. The umpiring exams which were conducted in June have come under scanner. Where will we get more umpires from? It is easy to use a software to work out the modalities of the calendar but what about logistics issues? How will the officials ensure everything is operationally fine?” wondered one state association official.
Most of the new entrants from northeast have only one ground. How will all the matches—men, women and age group—be played there, remains unanswered. Perhaps, that is why just the dates of competition have been released and not fixtures.
There is also a lack of clarity over the system of relegation and promotion in the Ranji Trophy—it is still unclear to the members as to how will the top five of the 18 teams from the elite A and B groups together in the Ranji Trophy, qualify for the quarterfinals?
The Board members now await the Supreme Court order on the new BCCI constitution eagerly, as it will finally pave the way for elections hopefully by September and give them the option to 'modify' the schedule a bit. “Fixtures can be revised. The key is not to lose the domestic season, and that will be one of the first things on the AGM agenda for sure,” said one senior Board member.