Ranji Trophy new format: The upcoming Ranji Trophy season will witness two winners – one from each of the two groups.
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After yet another successful Ranji Trophy season post the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the Madhya Pradesh side lift the coveted trophy for the first time in the tournament’s history, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the schedule for the 2022-23 season of its premier longest format tournament on Monday.
The upcoming domestic season is scheduled to commence from December 13. with the grand finale scheduled to take place on February 20, 2023.
However, differing from the status quo this time around, the apex board has decided that there would be two winners – one from the elite group and the other from the plate group.
The rationale for the change is to avoid mismatch in terms of quality between the sides during the knock-out stage, as was case during Jharkhand versus Nagaland pre-quarter-final of the Ranji Trophy this year.
Ranji Trophy new format
The development has meant that unlike the previous seasons, where all of the 38 domestic sides battled it out for one title each year, the upcoming season starting December this year, would witness two Ranji Trophy sides being crowned as the winners.
This means that the topper from the plate group will not be crossing over to take on an elite group team for a pre-quarter final match as it used to be earlier, as they would play a tournament of their own.
Instead, the six Plate group teams will play each other once, after which the top-4 sides would qualify for the semi-finals. The two finalists will be promoted to the Elite group in the 2023-24 season.
As for the Elites, the 32 teams will be divided into four groups of eight teams each. After each side plays against the seven other teams in their respective groups, top-two teams will directly qualify for the quarter-final stage.
Also, the bottom-two teams from all the four elite groups combined, based on points and quotient, will be relegated to plate group next season.
