Ranji 2018 : Skippers prefer home and away

MUMBAI: While there was unanimous support for the home-andaway match format in the Ranji Trophy, there were a few concerns expressed by the captains and coaches at their annual conclave, a platform for domestic players to provide feedback to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, held here on Monday.

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

In order to make matches more competitive and reduce stress on the players, this year the BCCI

› The home and away match format got a positive response. Everyone feels it is better than playing on neutral venues (which BCCI tried in the 201617 season). AN INSIDER PRESET AT THE MEET BETWEEN BCCI AND RANJI CAPTAINS

divided teams into four pools instead of three. “It made the matches more competitive and reduced the number of matches from eight in a three-pool league, to six.” It meant lesser opportunities and decrease in match allowances due to reduced number of playing days.

There was a mention by the BCCI representative that the issue of the reduced matches could get automatically addressed as there’s a good chance that teams from the North East could get a chance to play the Ranji Trophy. In their report the Supreme Court-appointed Lodha Committee has recommended that all the teams from the North East need to be equal stakeholders in the BCCI. Whether it’s practically possible remains to be seen because there’s a huge gulf in the standard of cricket teams from the region.

Most of the teams have an issue with the use of white SG-Glace ball for limited-over events instead of Kookaburra. But, the Board representative said it was an experiment by the BCCI and they would go back to the manufacturers and ask them to improve the quality as they intend to introduce it in international matches in India. As of now, the Kookaburra is used in the IPL and limited overs internationals in India. The Kookaburra ball (around ~10,000 per ball) is quite expensive compared to the locally manufactured ball.

The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators has increased the domestic men’s players’ per-day fee to ~35,000 from ~10,000. But BCCI’s acting hon secretary Amitabh Choudhary has yet to accept it. The captains wanted to understand the status, and were assured it would be cleared in the near future.