Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held the much-awaited Apex Council meeting on January 17. The meeting got its prominence as the governing body was due to take a decision on the fate of the Indian Premier Domestic season and Women’s Cricket in this ongoing pandemic.
In the meeting on Sunday, the Apex Council held talks about commencement of the Indian Women’s International season. BCCI gave the nod on kick-starting the Women’s domestic tournament from March. While no call was taken on the fate of the Ranji Trophy season.
The Indian board is in talks with the Cricket South Africa and Sri Lanka Cricket for the resumption of cricket for the Indian Women’s team. The team last played an international game back in March 2020. The Indian board is likely to have a full-fledged domestic season for Indian Women.
As per a PTI report, BCCI President, Sourav Ganguly is utterly committed to hosting the Ranji Trophy, whereas other members are pushing for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The report stated, “The operations team has been asked to work on the logistics for Ranji, which is obviously a much bigger challenge in the current circumstances.”
It will be either Ranji or Vijay Hazare and the discussion on it will be taken by the end of next week. It is certain that the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League will occur in the March-April window, making it difficult for the Indian board to find slots for the first-class tournament.
The report also added that Indian board would host a T20I series against the New Zealand (Men) team in October as a part of the host’s preparation for the T20 World Cup. The Apex Council also discussed the Tax Exemption issue in the meeting, but the matter still remains unresolved.