The Board of Control for Cricket in India has dropped the idea of fielding a team comprising National Cricket Academy trainees in the Duleep Trophy tournament.
The BCCI's Tours and Programmes and Fixtures Committee meeting, convened by Gautam Dasgupta and chaired by Kamal Morarka, in Mumbai on Monday, to chalk out the schedule for the 2005-06 domestic season, felt it would not be proper to field an NCA team considering the importance of the event.
"It was felt it would not be proper to field an NCA team in this important inter-zonal tournament in which all the top cricketers of the country would be taking part as they would be lacking experience to play at this level," BCCI joint-secretary Dasgupta told reporters.
As has been the practice in the last two seasons, a foreign team, often the 'A' team of one of the top Test nations, participates in the tournament, held at international cricket centres from mid-October to November.
Coloured clothing and white balls would be used in the Deodhar Trophy inter-zonal limited overs tournament, to be played in February-March, 2006, Dasgupta said, adding the tournament may not necessarily be held under lights.
The season begins with the Irani Cup tie between last year's Ranji Trophy winners Railways and the Rest of India in Delhi, from October 1 to 5.
This tournament would be followed by the October 10-13 Challenger Series day/night one-day tournament, to be held at Mohali, Dasgupta said, adding this was being done to give the Indian players practice ahead of the home One-Day International series against Sri Lanka.
The Lankans would be visiting India to play One-Day Internationals and Tests in October-November. The season would also see the South Africa team visit the country to play five One-Day Internationals.
Duleep Trophy groupings:
Group 1: Central Zone, South Zone and West Zone.
Group 2: North Zone, East Zone and a visiting foreign team.
This year's Ranji Trophy, commencing soon after the end of the Duleep Trophy around November 20, would see the league and knock-out phase being held without any break unlike last year when there was a three-month gap between the two stages.
The tournament is scheduled to finish in mid-February, Dasgupta said.
As per the draw of lots on Monday, the Ranji Trophy Elite and Plate division groups are as follows:
Elite Division:
Group A: Railways, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Bengal, Delhi and Tamil Nadu.
Group B: Punjab, Hyderabad, Haryana, Andhra, Services, Uttar Pradesh and Baroda.
Plate Division:
Group A: Himachal Pradesh, Saurashtra, Tripura, Vidarbha, Goa and Orissa.
Group B: Rajasthan, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.
