Ranji knockout in Bengaluru, final venue TBD
CHENNAI: The knockout phase of the Ranji Trophy will be held in Bengaluru from June 4 to 24, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Thursday. However, with the M Chinnaswamy Stadium set to host a T20I against South Africa on June 19, the BCCI may be forced to delay the start of the Ranji Trophy final by a few days unless it changes the venue.
After the group stage of the Ranji Trophy which was held in February-March, Bengal, Jharkhand, Mumbai, Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh have made it the knockout stages.
In a letter to the state units, the BCCI revealed that there won’t be any mandatory quarantine before the start of the knockout stages, but teams will continue to remain in a bubble. With the Covid situation improving across the country, the BCCI has also decided to allot rooms on a sharing basis for all the players and support staff.
The final is scheduled to take place at M Chinnaswamy stadium from June 20. However, with the T20I against South Africa set for July 19, there is likely to be a change. While one option is to delay the start of the final at least by three-four days, the other is to shift the match to Mysuru. While the grounds at Alur do have facilities for digital broadcast, it may not be conducive for television which usually involves more cameras.