BCCI amends schedule to add North East teams in junior tourneys

Kolkata, Sep 22 (IANS) The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday wrote letters to all state associations saying that the domestic schedule for junior and women's cricket matches has to be changed in order to accommodate teams from the North East states and Bihar for the upcoming season.

"There is a change in the schedule, arising out of the inclusion of teams from NE States and Bihar," BCCI general manager Ratnakar Shetty wrote in a letter, a copy of which is with IANS, to all state associations.

Six north eastern states of Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim had met the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) on September 8 appealing for allowing them to field a combined team in this year's Ranji Trophy.

While there was no mention of that, dedicated tournaments like a Under-19 Women's League, U-23 men's one day tournament and the Vijay Merchant Trophy (U-16) for the North East states and Bihar were mentioned in 'additions'.

The U-19 Women's League will be held from November 1 in Dhanbad while Ranchi will host the U-23 men's one day tournament from January 21.

The U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy will be held in Shillong in December.

Since last season, a combined North East team has been given the chance to play in the age-group tournaments conducted by the BCCI.

Earlier this year, going by retired Justice R.M. Lodha Committee recommendations, the North East states were granted full membership.

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