Domestic cricket may revert to home and away system

The captains and coaches called for doing away with the neutral venues for all domestic matches, including the Ranji Trophy, and asked for the old 'home and away' system be brought back.

In a meeting with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) held in Mumbai on Tuesday, the issues related to Ranji scheduling, umpiring standards, pay-hike for domestic players and going back to the state-wise format for Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament were discussed.

The meeting was attended by BCCI acting president CK Khanna and secretary Amitabh Choudhary and captains and coaches from 27 teams involved in the domestic scene.

The lone absentee was from Delhi Districts and Cricket Association (DDCA) as both captain Gautam Gambhir and coach KP Bhaskar missed the meeting for different reasons.

DNA learnt that Bhaskar was first informed that the meeting was being held in Delhi and was only conveyed later that it was shifted to Mumbai. Whereas, Gambhir was apparently not informed about the meeting by DDCA officials after he returned from a hectic Indian Premier League schedule.

Last season, the Sourav Ganguly-led technical committee of the BCCI had suggested that Ranji matches be played on neutral venues to avoid hosts doctoring the pitches. However, the way it was implemented without a proper debate, the exercise backfired with almost all teams complaining about lacklustre outings recorded during the season.

And on Tuesday, majority of them said the same thing citing scheduling and the amount of travel teams had to go through for each tie. Some captains claimed that the distance covered was way higher compared to other teams. Andhra, for instance having played Tripura in Valsad (Gujarat) travelled 2,637 kms to play Kerala in Guwahati.

Meanwhile, the captains also demanded a pay-hike for the cricketers citing examples of domestic cricketers in England and Australia, who receive much more than any Indian domestic cricketer with no regular contract.

Similarly, the other talking point was the standard of umpiring in domestic circuit and even in the IPL and it was demanded to go back to old system of including captains' feedback after each game.

The BCCI will put forward these suggestions to the technical committee and any decision will be subject to the approval of the Board's working committee.