Duleep Trophy back to red ball format; no live coverage until Day/Night final

Duleep Trophy back to red ball format; no live coverage until Day/Night final

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The BCCI Game Operations Head Saba Karim has revealed that apart from the final from September 5-9, all the other matches will be traditional red-ball games like the old times. It has also been revealed that only the final match will be televised live and will be played under lightrs in Bengaluru.

Today, the BCCI announced the teams for the Duleep Trophy tournament, and the three teams will be playing under the leadership of Shubman Gill, Priyank Panchal, and Faiz Fazal. However, making a major tweak to the tournament, the BCCI head of game operations Saba Karim stated that apart from the final match from September 5-9, which will be telecast live, all the other matches will be traditional red-ball games like the old times.

“We have floodlights at the Chinnaswamy but we are not playing with the pink ball under lights as there is no live coverage. Only the final match will be a day/night affair as that’s the only match to be aired live” Karim told PTI on Tuesday.

On being asked if this will be a roadblock in moving towards pink-ball Tests in future, Karim disagreed and stated that they are contemplating to play India A matches with the pink ball.

“I don’t think so. If everyone associated with Indian cricket is on the same page, maybe we can think of having India A first class games with pink balls. I am not saying anything is confirmed but you never know if everyone comes on the same page,” Karim said.

However, a senior BCCI official said the decision to scrap pink balls save the final has been done keeping the bigger picture in mind as India are not slated to play any Test match in ICC Test Championship which renders the tournament meaningless.

“The Indian team is not playing any pink ball cricket in near future. All our Test engagements are a part of World Test Championship. And we are not playing any Day/Night games in World Test Championship,” the senior official, who is privy to Indian team management’s selection policies, told PTI on condition of anonymity.

“So what’s the logic of our supply line of players playing a tournament with pink ball when they are in any case going to play red ball cricket if selected for India,” he said.

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