Ranji Trophy news: BCCI postpones Ranji Trophy 2022, CK Naidu Trophy amid COVID-19 scare

Ranji Trophy news: Having been cancelled for the first time in history in the year 2020, the upcoming season has been postponed as well.

With the country witnessing yet another surge in the number of COVID-19 cases, especially since the past couple of weeks, the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) has decided to postpone the upcoming Ranji Trophy season which was due to commence from January 13.

It is worth of a mention that BCCI’s premier First-Class tournament was cancelled for the first time ever in its 85-year-old history in the 2020-21 season, and was all set to return after two seasons at multiple venues across six cities: Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai.

Alongside the Ranji Trophy, The BCCI has also postponed the Under-25 CK Nayudu Trophy and the senior women’s T20 league for the 2021-22 season. While the former was also scheduled to take place this month, the women’s tournament was slated to take place in February.

Feel very bad for domestic players. Losing out on crucial red-ball years due to Covid especially when there aren’t other multi-day domestic tournaments.#RanjiTrophy

— Subhayan Chakraborty (@CricSubhayan) January 4, 2022

Ranji Trophy news

Taking cognizance of the rising COVID-19 cases in India coupled with the new Omicron threat, BCCI secretary Jay Shah said, “BCCI does not want to compromise the safety of the players, support staff, match officials and other participants involved and hence, has decided to put the three tournaments on hold till further notice. The BCCI will continue to assess the situation and take a call on the start of the tournaments accordingly.”

“BCCI thanks and continues to appreciate the efforts of the healthcare workers, state associations, players, support staff, match officials and all the service providers who put their best foot forward to host more than 700 matches across 11 tournaments in the current 2021-22 domestic season,” Shah further stated in a release on Tuesday.

The tournament’s conduction was already under dark clouds after six Bengal players and their assistant coach had tested positive for Covid-19 on January 3.