By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS
New Delhi : The Indian cricket board’s technical committee has suggested doing away with the final of the Plate Group in Ranji Trophy and instead making the two top teams play in an additional quarter-final round with the Elite Group teams.
The Sunil Gavaskar-chaired technical committee has made this innovative proposal to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and it will now go to the working committee for its approval.
“At present, four teams in both groups play the semi-finals. What we have suggested is that the top three teams from ‘A’ and ‘B’ pools of Elite along with the two finalists of Plate play knockout quarter-finals,” a member of the Technical Committee said. That way the semi-finals of the Elite Groups ‘A’ and ‘B’, as played currently, will also be done away with.
“This way the better teams in the Plate Group will get more exposure against top teams of the Elite Group. We made this suggestion to the board in our previous meeting. Let’s see how the board takes it,” he told IANS.
Even if the working committee approves this proposal, it will come into effect only from the 2008-09 domestic season.
Currently, the Elite and Plate groups have separate finals. Two bottom placed teams in the 15-team Elite Group are demoted to the 12-team Plate Group, from which the two finalists are promoted to the upper pool.
The Elite Group has two pools within itself, ‘A’ and ‘B’. And both ‘A’ and ‘B’ groups have their owns finals, with the winner of the ‘A’ group being declared the Ranji Trophy champion team.
“Currently, the two top teams in the Plate Group play the final. But if they play quarter-finals, they will get more exposure against good teams of the Elite Group,” said the technical committee member.
“And if this team from the Plate Group wins even one match in the quarter-final, it will get another match to play, which means more exposure for them. Who knows, the Plate Group team could go on to win the Ranji Trophy.”