Skippers raise match fee, white ball issues at Ranji conclave

The homeandaway format got a positive response. Everyone feels it is better than playing on neutral venues (which BCCI tried in 201617).

MUMBAI: While there was unanimous support for the home-andaway match format in Ranji Trophy, captains and coaches raised afew concerns at their annual conclave, a platform for domestic players to provide feedback to BCCI, held here on Monday.

“The home-and-away format got a positive response. Everyone feels it is better than playing on neutral venues (BCCI tried that in 2016-17),” an insider present at the meeting said.

To make matches more competitive and reduce stress on the players, BCCI this season divided the teams into four pools instead of three. “It made the matches more competitive, but reduced the number of matches from eight in a three-pool league, to six.”

It meant fewer opportunities and lesser match fees due to the reduced number of playing days.

The BCCI representative mentioned that the issue of fewer