Reports | Vijay Hazare to kick-off on February 20; final on March 14

With no Ranji Trophy for the first time in a long time, the BCCI have earmarked the 50-over competition - Vijay Hazare Trophy - as the last domestic competition for  Men’s cricket this year. The competition is set to begin on February 20, just 20 days after the completion of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, which kicked off the domestic competitions in the country. 

As per Cricbuzz’s reports, BCCI have sent the circular around to the various state associations, informing that the 50-over competition would kick-off on February 20, going on till March 1, where the group stage would come to a completion. Further, after a round of COVID-19 Tests, the teams would proceed to play the knockout stage of the competition, from March 8 before the semi-finals on March 11. 

The all-important final of the competition would be played on March 14, with the venue for the final yet to be decided. Earlier, the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad hosted the SMAT knock-out stage. The six centres - Surat, Indore, Bangalore, Jaipur, Kolkata alongside a venue in Tamil Nadu have been finalised as the venues. 

"The teams are required to assemble in their respective host cities on February 13 and will be needed to undergo Covid-19 testing procedure and Quarantine in accordance with the State regulatory authorities and the BCCI's SOPs," the BCCI mail to the state units, accessed by Cricbuzz, said on Sunday evening (February 6).

Elite A (Surat): Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Hyderabad, Baroda and Goa

Elite B (Indore): Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Jharkhand, MP, Vidarbha and AP

Elite C (Bangalore): Karnataka, UP, Kerala, Odisha, Railways and Bihar

Elite D (Jaipur): Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, HP, Rajasthan and Pondicherry

Elite E (Kolkata): Bengal, Services, J&K, Saurashtra, Haryana and Chadigarh

Plate (Tamil Nadu, city TBC): Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim