CHENNAI : The domestic schedule announced by the BCCI seems to have been passed without the approval of the technical committee, headed by former India captain Sourav Ganguly. As per BCCI norms, the technical committee finalises the domestic calendar. But Ganguly revealed on Tuesday that he or other members of the committee were not consulted before the schedule was made public.
Ganguly, who heads the Cricket Association of Bengal, also revealed that he was kept out of the loop when a decision was made with regards to increasing the number of teams participating in Ranji Trophy to 37.
On July 17, the BCCI in a statement announced the biggest domestic season ever, commencing with the Duleep Trophy from August 17. The Ranji Trophy format was revamped, with nine, nine and 10 teams in three Elite Groups and eight new entrants in the Plate Group. Express understands this was not the model the technical committee suggested to the CoA. The committee believes players in the Plate Group will get less attention in this set-up.
After a technical committee meeting on April 17, the BCCI released a statement signed by acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary. “The Ranji Trophy 2018-19 season is proposed to have 4 groups with the introduction of pre-quarterfinals. The format will remain home and away. The proposed Ranji format will be implemented in U-19 and U-23 junior men tournaments… The committee unanimously approved the inclusion of Bihar in the Ranji Trophy 2018-19 season.
The committee felt in view of the Hon’ble Supreme Court judgement dated July 18, 2016, the North Eastern associates and affiliate members must also be considered. The recommendations of the technical committee will be sent to the CoA and then ratified by the BCCI general body.”However, this meeting made no mention of the number of teams. Sources told Express the technical committee was of the view that the integration of the Northeast teams, along with Bihar and Uttarakhand, had to be done gradually, from age-group tournaments. It was done before getting Chhattisgarh into the mainstream in 2016-17.
But the CoA did not consider this suggestion. Syed Saba Karim, general manager of cricket operations and in-charge of domestic cricket, and CEO Rahul Johri are understood to have planned the domestic calendar without consulting the technical committee. “We were not aware of any of the developments that are there in the public domain with regards to the domestic calendar. This was not the calendar or the format prepared by the technical committee. It is definitely different from the one we compiled,” Ganguly told Express.
Attempts to reach Karim proved futile.
Even for Duleep Trophy, the technical committee had proposed a format with four teams which was not considered. “The Duleep Trophy is to be played with four teams using the pink Kookaburra ball. Each of the teams will represent the four groups of Ranji Trophy,” the technical committee had said citing the previous Ranji season. On Monday, however, only three teams for Duleep were named.
Interestingly, the fixtures for the domestic calendar didn’t have Choudhary’s signature. As per the BCCI constitution, the secretary holds the power when it comes to executive decisions and when probed, it came to light that none of the office-bearers were aware of the domestic schedule. While none of them were aware why the technical committee’s proposal was not considered, some of the officials said this is a departure from the past.
“After the CoA took over, the sub-committees of the BCCI were asked not to hold meetings. The technical committee, which had been running things smoothly even when there was chaos all around, has also been ignored when it came to taking a decision of this magnitude,” an official said.
venkatakrishna@newindianexpress.com