BCCI Prepones Deodhar Trophy To Avoid Overlapping With Irani Cup

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to prepone the Deodhar Trophy to avoid its clash with Irani Cup, which starts on March 14.

Earlier, as per BCCI’s website, both the tournaments were scheduled to start on the same date (March 14), but the board has now made changes in the fixtures of the tournament and has also uploaded revised fixtures on its official website.

The domestic calendar of season 2017/18 was altered to prepone the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy ahead of the IPL auction. It served two purposes. Firstly, it provided players with an opportunity to do well in the T20 tournament and attract IPL franchises just ahead of the IPL auction, and secondly, it also gave a big pool to franchises to choose.

IPL scouts were out there at different venues of India to witness the T20 tournament. They will continue to be at different venues in Kolkata for one more week as the Super League of the tournament starts tomorrow (January 21), six days before the IPL auction.

Now with BCCI correcting the fixtures of Deodhar Trophy, it can be assumed that top players like Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Murali Vijay and few other Test regulars will be playing in both the tournaments.

Firstly, they will all be playing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, and then, they will be available for both Deodhar Trophy and Irani Cup as Indian team is not playing any Test match during that period. India’s limited overs specialists will not be available for these two tournaments.

Deodhar Trophy will be played between the winners of Vijay Hazare Trophy, India A and India B team. The three league stage games of the tournament will be played on March 4, 5 and 6 before the final which will be played on March 8. All the matches will be played in Dharamsala.

Irani Cup will be played between Ranji Trophy champions, Vidarbha, and a Rest of India squad, which will be dominated by the India Test regulars. In fact, there will be no surprise if an India Test regular like Ajinkya Rahane or Cheteshwar Pujara is appointed as the captain as they both will be available to play the tournament. The five-day game will be played in Nagpur, the home ground of the Ranji Trophy champions, Vidarbha.

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