Ernakulam ADivision League from today

Around this time last year, the Ernakulam District ADivision Cricket League was long over.

This season, after working around the player registration rules, the EDCA ADivision begins at the St. Paul’s College ground, Kalamassery, on Tuesday with the match between defending champion Muthoot Microfin CC and Century CC.

The ADivision will feature eight teams with last year’s runnerup Tripunithura CC ‘B’, Swantons CC, Young Challengers CC, Masters RCC and the two promoted teams from last season’s BDivision Tripunithura CC ‘C’ and Swantons Trust.

A few years ago, the league was a twoday affair but now it’s a shorter format.

“We stopped twoday matches during the Covid period and then due to unavailability of grounds and also the guest (player) rules, we reduced it to 40 overs,” R. Karthik, the secretary of the Ernakulam District Cricket Association, told The Hindu on Monday.

“But recently, the KCA (Kerala Cricket Association) changed the rules, they now allow dual registration only for multiday matches so we came back to 50over matches.

“The guest rules were actually spoiling the district’s interest, that was the main reason why we reduced it to 40 overs earlier. Now, since the KCA has changed it to multiday, we started 50over matches. Last season it was 40 overs. I think we had twoday matches in 2017 and 2018.”

Karthik also explained the reason for the delay.

“We are starting very late this season because we are introducing a new scoring system and player registration rules. And everything comes under one platform now. Earlier, each district was using one app or the other. Now, we have made it into one app, unique IDs were given to players and that took a little time.”