The BCCI Senior One Day Tournament is all set to take place from March 11 in the post-COVID-19 era. Six cities will host the entire tournament, namely – Surat, Rajkot, Jaipur, Indore, Chennai and Bangalore. However, all the teams are requested to assemble in their respective host cities on March 4 as they will undergo the COVID-19 Tests and quarantine period according to the COVID-19 guidelines.
Notably, they will have their first COVID-19 Test on that day and the rest two Tests will take place on March 6 & 8 respectively before they start practising on March 10. The tournament will be played in six groups where 37 teams will compete. It is also noteworthy that, five elite groups will have six teams each whereas the plate group has seven teams.
Last year, the tournament couldn’t take place entirely due to the global pandemic novel coronavirus, which brought the entire world to a standstill. However, the situation has been returning in its zone slowly and sporting events have also been taking place all over the world. While men’s domestic series have already been started with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, this will be the first domestic tournament for the women’s team.
However, the tournament will begin with the Plate Group games on March 11. And, the defending champion Bengal will begin their campaign against Railways on March 12. The group league games will end on March 21. And, all the teams will travel on the next day and will have their 1st COVID-19 Test for the next stage of the tournament. While Eliminator (Pre Quarter-Final) will be played on March 28, four Quarterfinals will take place on March 29 and 30 as well.
Both Semi-finals will be played on 1st April and the final of the tournament will take place on April 4. While the venues have been decided for the group league stage, they will be announced later for the rest of the games.
As far as the Indian Team’s international series is concerned, they will take on South Africa at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow from March 7. They will play 5 ODIs and 3 T20Is as well. Notably, this will mark Team India’s return to international cricket too.
Groups of Senior One Day Tournament:
Elite Group A: Jharkhand, Odisha, Hyderabad, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Tripura
Elite Group B: Railways, Bengal, Saurashtra, Haryana, Assam, Uttarakhand
Elite Group C: Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Goa, Chandigarh
Elite Group D: Madhya Pradesh, Mumbai, Kerala, Baroda, Punjab, Nagaland
Elite Group E: Karnataka, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Vidarbha, Meghalaya
Plate Group: Pondicherry, J&K, Mizoram, Bihar, Manipur, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh
Venues:
Elite Group A: Surat
Elite Group B: Rajkot
Elite Group C: Jaipur
Elite Group D: Indore
Elite Group E: Chennai
Plate Group: Bangalore
