The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday wrote letters to all state associations saying that the domestic schedule for junior and women’s cricket matches has to be changed in order to accommodate teams from the Northeast states and Bihar for the upcoming season.
“There is a change in the schedule, arising out of the inclusion of teams from Northeast states and Bihar,” BCCI general manager Ratnakar Shetty wrote in a letter to all state associations, news agency IANS reported.
Six Northeast states of Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim had met the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) on September 8 appealing for allowing them to field a combined team in this year’s Ranji Trophy.
While there was no mention of that, dedicated tournaments like a Under-19 Women’s League, U-23 men’s one day tournament and the Vijay Merchant Trophy (U-16) for the North East states and Bihar were mentioned in ‘additions’.
The U-19 Women’s League will be held from November 1 in Dhanbad while Ranchi will host the U-23 men’s one day tournament from January 21.
The U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy will be held in Shillong in December.
Since last season, a combined Northeast team has been given the chance to play in the age-group tournaments conducted by the BCCI.
Earlier this year, going by retired Justice RM Lodha Committee recommendations, the Northeast states were granted full membership.
