Planning to start domestic cricket from January 1: Sourav Ganguly

New Delhi, October 17

The much awaited domestic cricket season will start from January 1, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said on Saturday.

The BCCI Apex Council met on Saturday evening and a good amount of time was spent on discussing the domestic calendar which has been sent haywire by the surging cases of COVID-19 in India.

"We have had extensive discussions on domestic cricket and we have tentatively decided to start the competitions from January 1, 2021," Ganguly told PTI from Dubai.

When asked if it would be a curtailed season or not, the former Indian captain said the board won't be able to accommodate all domestic tournaments for practical purposes.

"We will certainly have the full-fledged Ranji Trophy tournament. It will probably not be possible to hold all tournaments," Ganguly said, hinting that BCCI is eyeing the January-March window for Ranji Trophy.

The BCCI president also assured that the junior cricket and women's tournaments would be held between March and April.

"We also have elaborate plans for our age group and women's cricket. We will start with Ranji Trophy and then we will also have the other tournaments between March and April," he said.

He also informed that the Indian team would be allowed to train in Australia during their quarantine phase.

"Cricket Australia has sent us an itinerary and we discussed the modalities of that itinerary. We will be playing four Tests and that will end in third week of January," said the BCCI president.

The Indian team is expected to play three ODIs, three T20Is and four Tests Down Under.

On the home series against England, Ganguly said that the BCCI was monitoring the situation and the final itinerary would be prepared in due time.

"The England series is good three and a half to four months away. We still have time. We are monitoring the situation (COVID-19) which is pretty fluid and will take a call accordingly," he said.

While hosting the series in India  (Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Dharamsala being likely venues) remains priority, the UAE is a second option. PTI

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