Sourav Ganguly perplexed by new CoA-approved Ranji Trophy format

According to The Indian Express’ report, the former Indian captain was baffled by BCCI’s decision to introduce a promotion and relegation format in which the bottom team from the Elite Group C will be relegated to the Plate group next season. The 42-year-old expressed his disappointment by revealing the abolishment of a similar format earlier solely due to the reason of people’s ignorance towards the performances in the Plate group.

“The Elite and Plate group had been abolished earlier because it was felt that performances in the Plate group were not given enough recognition,” Ganguly said.

In the general body meeting in June, it was decided to include Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim and Uttarakhand to the Plate group for the upcoming season.

The Technical Committee had approved the inclusion of the new teams but were against the decision of bifurcating the league and instead wanted the introduction of Division B.

A proposal for a qualifying Super League was also suggested but was not taken into consideration. The league would have seen the bottom two teams from Elite Group and top two teams from the Plate Group fight out to play in the Elite Group next season.