BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla mentioned that the board is planning to hold two home games for the Indian Cricket Team in Raipur to encourage cricket in the area. During a recent meeting, they approved the venues for the white-ball series against New Zealand. We want to promote cricket in Chhattisgarh. One match will be between India and South Africa and another against New Zealand. This is a big win for Raipur, Shukla told reporters.
The upcoming series, set for early 2026, will include three ODIs in Baroda (January 11), Rajkot (January 14), and Indore (January 18). Five T20Is are scheduled for Nagpur (January 21), Raipur (January 23), Guwahati (January 25), Vizag (January 28), and Trivandrum (January 31).
The meeting also approved the BCCI Domestic Season 2025-26, starting with the Duleep Trophy on August 28, 2025, and wrapping up with the Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal Multi-Day Trophy on April 3, 2026.
There are some important changes to the domestic tournaments:
- The Duleep Trophy and Senior Women’s Challenger tournaments will now feature six zonal teams chosen by zonal selectors.
- The Plate Group will include the bottom six teams based on last season’s rankings for limited-overs tournaments.
- Promotion and relegation rules have been updated so that only one team will move up or down between the Elite and Plate groups.
- The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Senior Women’s T20 Trophy will now have a Super League stage instead of the usual knockout format.
- Major tournaments like the Vijay Hazare Trophy and Senior Women’s One Day Trophy will use a system of 4 Elite Groups and 1 Plate Group. Most junior and women’s tournaments will shift to a 5 Elite 1 Plate group setup.
The Apex Council has also decided to create a Working Group with five Umpire Coaches to help improve umpiring standards, and there will be another group made up of three former Match Referees to oversee and support the development of match referees.