Ranji Trophy returns back to domestic schedule of India

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will hold the Ranji trophy from January 5 to March 20. The tournament was cancelled last year due to a pandemic. 

"The pandemic has been tough on all of us, we have all had to make some hard decisions that have kept us from playing a full-fledged domestic cricket season in India. On behalf of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), we thank all our state associations, administrators, match officials, coaches, and athletes, for their patience and understanding," BCCI secretary Jay Shah told the state units in a letter which is in possession of Cricbuzz.

The board has also said that the domestic season will commence with Women's Under-19 One-Day and Men's Under-19 competition Vinoo Mankad Trophy from September 20 October 19.

The T20 domestic tournament Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy will take place between October 27 to November 22 while the Vijay Hazare Trophy which is a one-day tournament will be held from December 1 to 29. 

"The restart date for BCCI Domestic Cricket Season 2021-22 has been reviewed with all stakeholders, as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic develops and we work together through this very challenging time," Shah wrote in his mail.

The board has introduced Inter-State A competition for the Under-25 men and will replace the earlier U23 competition Col CK Nayudu and will take place from January 6 to April 2. The governing body has also cleared the air on Under-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy and will be held in November-December. The dates of the tournament are yet to be announced. 




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ICC Women's World Cup Qualifier shifted to Zimbabwe owing to Covid situation in Sri Lanka

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday confirmed that the Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2021 will be held in Zimbabwe from 21st November to 5th December. Originally the tournament was slated to be played in the island nation Sri Lanka in July last year but had to be postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ten-team tournament will feature five sides from the regional qualifiers namely Thailand, The Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, the United States of America and Zimbabwe who will be joined by Bangladesh, Ireland, West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The full schedule of the tournament will be announced in due course. The top three teams in the competition will feature in the 2022 Women’s World Cup which will be hosted by New Zealand in March-April 2022. Defending champions England, Australia, India, New Zealand and South Africa have directly qualified for the main event. The top three qualifiers along with the next two teams will book their places in the next ICC Women’s Championship. The remaining five teams will be the top five sides from the last time around. "The ICC Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier is an extremely important event in our calendar as it not only provides teams with a chance to qualify for the World Cup but will also determine the final two participants in the next edition of the ICC Women's Championship. I'm sure Harare will be witness to some keenly contested matches. I thank Zimbabwe Cricket for agreeing to host the tournament and wish teams all the best in their preparations for this important event," ICC Head of Events Chris Tetley was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. "Firstly, I wish to express our heartfelt thanks to the ICC board for their magnanimous gesture in allowing us the privilege of hosting the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2021. On our part, we will leave no stone unturned to ensure this prestigious global event stands out as a unique event that celebrates Zimbabwe in all its magnificent splendour, richness, vibrancy, diversity and glory. I believe being granted the right to host this tournament is a vote of confidence in what we as ZC are doing and what we are hoping to do. You can rest assured we will not disappoint. We will not disappoint the nation of Zimbabwe and we will not disappoint the game of cricket," Zimbabwe Cricket Chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani quipped.

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After investigation delay, Yorkshire offer soft apology to Azeem Rafiq over racism row

At last, the Yorkshire County Cricket Club has made public the results of an “extensive” investigation it had launched into the allegations of racism made by their former player Azeem Rafiq. The county club acknowledged that the investigation revealed that Rafiq must have faced oms sort of “inappropriate behaviour” at some point in time during the period the leg spinner has complained of and issued an apology for the same. However, not all the allegations were upheld by an independent panel chaired by Dr Samir Pathak, a consultant pancreatic surgeon at St. James’s University Hospital in Leeds, along with a trustee of the MCC Foundation and a member of the MCC Cricket Committee. The Yorkshire CCC said that the panel could not gather “sufficient evidence” to determine the authenticity of allegations made by Rafiq. “There were many allegations made against the Club most of which relate to a period more than ten years ago. Many of the allegations were not upheld and for others there was insufficient evidence for the Panel to make a determination. It is right, however, to acknowledge from the outset that several of the allegations made by Azeem were upheld and that sadly, historically, Azeem was the victim of inappropriate behaviour. This is clearly unacceptable. We would like to express our profound apologies for this,” the Yorkshire CCC said in a statement. Notably, Rafiq had in September last year complained of racism he said he faced from the Yorkshire CCC that started way back in the year 2008. The county club launched an investigation in the following month while it carried with new witnesses coming forward as late as in April earlier this year. Earlier this week, Rafeeq took a dig at the administrators of Yorkshire for delaying the publication of the findings of the investigation and had called on the ECB to press the county to publish the report.