BCCI forms seven-member working group to look after domestic cricket

Jay Shah has written to state associations, making them aware that the board has formed a seven-member working group comprising of the member associations for domestic cricket in India

Jay Shah, the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has written to state associations, making them aware that the board has formed a seven-member working group comprising of the member associations for domestic cricket in India.

The group comprises Rohan Jaitley (North Zone), Yudhvir Singh (Central Zone), Jaydev Shah (West Zone), Devajit Saikia (North-East Zone), Avishek Dalmiya (East Zone), and Santosh Menon and Mohammed Azharuddin (South Zone).

Remuneration of domestic players for the previous season wherein COVID-19 saw tournaments being cancelled will be a major point of focus.

BCCI has already announced the return of domestic cricket in India -- for the upcoming 2021-22 season -- with a total of 2,127 domestic games to be played across various age groups in the men's and women's categories.

As per the media advisory from BCCI, the season will commence on September 21 with the Senior Women's One Day League and will be followed by the Senior Women's One Day Challenger Trophy, which will take place from October 27.

The men's tournaments will start with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The T20 event will kickstart on October 20 with the final to be played on November 12.

The coveted Ranji Trophy, which was cancelled last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be played in a three-month window from November 16 to February 19, 2022.

The Vijay Hazare Trophy will take place from February 23, 2022, to March 26, 2022.

"The BCCI is confident of hosting the domestic season with health and safety of players and all people involved being paramount," the governing body said in an official statement.

The Vijay Hazare Trophy was clinched by Mumbai this year while Tamil Nadu won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in January 2021.