JOIN USNew format to liven up tournament
A bigger field and an innovative format will be the highlights of this year’s Safi Darashah Trophy tournament, scheduled to be held in Bangalore and Mysore from Wednesday.
The only domestic tournament in the country, apart from the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy, to be played over four days will see certain changes in playing conditions aimed at keeping the game ‘alive.’ To begin with, the duration of play on each day has been extended by half an hour to accommodate 98 overs as against the normal 90 bowled in first-class cricket.
The teams will get to play a maximum of 120 overs in the first innings and 60 in the second, but in the event of a team being dismissed, for example, in 80 overs in the first innings, the unutilised 40 overs will be carried forward to the second innings. Which means that team will have 100 overs to bat in the second essay. However, if a team declares its innings closed, the remaining overs will not be added to the second innings.
Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) secretary Javagal Srinath said the changes have been introduced with the sole purpose of doing away with any possibility of meaningless cricket on the last day or when teams resort to killing the game as a contest.
“The points system has been designed in such a way that even if a team has a bad first innings, it can still bounce back in the second and press for an outright win. There will still be three points for the first-innings lead and one point for conceding the lead in a drawn game but if a team bounces back to win a match, then it will get its five points but the team that took the first-innings lead and lost the match will still get some reward (two points) for having been competitive for at least one half of the match,” he explained.
The restriction on number of overs, however, doesn’t mean a result has to be achieved. Any outcome of the match will be in conjunction with a normal four-day match. Also, to discourage negative bowling, the off-side wide guideline will be drawn at a distance of 12 inches from the return crease.
It was at the insistence of former India skipper Rahul Dravid that the local league matches (Division I and II) are now played over two days with a desire to get the youngsters accustomed to longer version of the game. And it was again at the right-hander’s suggestion that the KSCA decided to play the season-opening tournament over four days. Dravid and KSCA’s Cricket Committee members, including its chairman Venkatesh Prasad, formulated the changes in playing conditions in consultation with a few umpires.
Anil Kumble, the KSCA president, felt it was too early to consider when asked if the overs restriction and the points system could be implemented in the Ranji Trophy as well. “We will know how successful the system has been on August 13 (the last day of the final),” said Kumble.
DH News Service
Zones: Zone ‘A’: KSCA XI, Jharkhand, Goa, Rajasthan.
Zone ‘B’: KSCA President’s XI, Bengal, Kerala, Tripura.
Zone ‘C’: (in Mysore): KSCA Secretary’s XI, Baroda, Andhra, Assam.
Zone ‘D’: KSCA Colts, Orissa, Saurashtra, Haryana.