Former India captain and chairman of BCCI’s Technical Committee Sourav Ganguly has come down heavily on the revised Ranji Trophy structure approved by the BCCI’s Committee of Administrators, The Indian Express reported.
Ganguly has not minced his words over the issue after the new format was released without taking into consideration suggestions made by the technical committee.
The 42-year-old was left perplexed by BCCI’s decision to introduce a promotion and relegation format which will see the bottom team from the Elite Group C getting relegated to the Plate group next season.
“In the past, the Elite and Plate groups had been abolished, because it was felt that the performances in the Plate Group weren’t given enough recognition,” Ganguly was quoted as saying.
Ganguly further feels that the changes arose due to the “current situation” in the BCCI.
The upcoming season will see Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim and Uttarakhand play in the Plate Group.
While the Ganguly-led technical committee had approved the inclusion of the Northeast states, they were not in favour of bifurcating the league. They had proposed the introduction of Division B for the new teams.
“It has been done. So the people concerned will have to find a way to get around it,” Ganguly said.
In the general body meeting in June, it was decided that the Ranji Trophy would return to the Elite and Plate group format with the new teams playing in the latter.
A proposal for a qualifying Super League was also mooted. It would see the two bottom-placed sides in the Elite Group squaring off against the top-two teams in the Plate group, with the winners and runners-up earning the right to play in the Elite Group. This suggestion, though, was ignored.