New Delhi: India’s domestic cricket schedule was thrown into chaos Tuesday with the BCCI deciding to postpone major tournaments including the Ranji Trophy and the Col CK Naidu Trophy. This was done due to a surge in Covid-19 cases across India.
Six members of the Bengal contingent including five players have tested positive along with a few Mumbai players. So it was inevitable that the blue riband tournament beginning January 13 had to be shelved indefinitely.
“The Ranji Trophy & Col CK Nayudu Trophy were scheduled to begin this month while the Senior Women’s T20 League was scheduled to commence in February,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah stated in a press release. “However, now they have been postponed till further notice,” he added.
Shah said that BCCI didn’t want to compromise on the health of its players, support staff and match officials. It is for this reason that for the second year in a row the red ball competition in all probability will not be held. “The BCCI will continue to assess the situation and take a call on the start of the tournaments accordingly,” Shah said.
The BCCI had formed six separate bio-bubbles in six different cities with multiple grounds – Ahmedabad, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata.
In fact, the Mumbai team had arrived in Kolkata. However, on arrival their out of favour India all-rounder Shivam Dube tested positive and had to be isolated.
CAB secretary Avishek Dalmiya had been admitted to a city nursing home as a precautionary measure after testing positive.
The situation is grim across all the major cities with Delhi recording 5,481 cases Tuesday while Mumbai had 10,860 new cases with hundreds of them being affected by new Omicron variant. Bengal has seen a single day highest ever rise of 9,073 cases as per state’s health department.
Shah on his part thanked all the stakeholders for being able to organise more than 700 matches across all age-groups during the season.
“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,” he said.