The Twenty20 dose will not end with just the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the country as the Indian team is set to take on South Africa immediately after. Rohit Sharma & Co will be involved in a five-match series which will be played across the country in June. The series will run for 10 days before the Indian team takes off to England for an unfinished Test and six white-ball matches.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has already stated that the IPL will be held in Mumbai and Pune from March 26 to May 29 and just about 10 days later the Twenty20 series against South Africa will start. “This is part of the FTP and there were always to be played after the IPL,” a BCCI official said.
The Apex Council of the BCCI, which met on Wednesday (March 2), decided on the schedule for the South Africa series and Cricbuzz has learnt that the games will be held from June 9 to 19. The venues will be Cuttack, Vizag, Delhi, Rajkot and Chennai.
Bengaluru and Nagpur were to get the games in the series but Cuttack and Vizag have been allotted the matches instead, presumably because the two centres missed out on the Twenty20 fixtures during recent West Indies series. The BCCI conducted the six matches against West Indies in only two centres – Ahmedabad and Kolkata – with an aim to cut down on travel.
The Apex Council has also factored in the weather conditions in the country around that time and according to information gathered by the board managers (placed before the meeting), there may be slight rain for the first game in Cuttack (as is the seasonal norm in that part of the world at that time of the year). For the second game in Vizag, there is less chance of rain while warm conditions are expected in other three centres – Delhi, Rajkot and Chennai – during those games.
CK Nayudu, Women’s T20 league
The Apex Council has also approved the conduct of the CK Nayudu Trophy, Senior Women’s T20 League and Cooch Behar Trophy games. The schedule for two of the aforementioned tournaments has also been finalized. These events had to be postponed from January-February because of the spread and threat of the Omicron wave.
Cricbuzz has learnt that CK Nayudu Trophy (for Under 25 men), with eight Elite Groups of four teams each and one Plate Group of five teams, will be held from March 15 to May 1. The Senior Women’s T20 league, with five Elite Groups of six teams each and one Plate Group of seven teams, will be played from April 15 to May 12. The schedule for the knockout games of the Under 19 Cooch Behar Trophy has not been decided but in principle the Apex Council has agreed to complete the tournament.
