BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal on Thursday (January 27) said that the board is planning to conduct the Ranji Trophy in "two phases" after the premier first-class competition had to be postponed due to rising cases of COVID-19 in the country.

The Ranji Trophy 2021-22 was scheduled to get underway on January 13 but was postponed indefinitely owing to the third wave of COVID-19.

As per a PTI report, the BCCI is planning to start the IPL from 27 March and it is not feasible to carry out the Ranji Trophy in one go but after requests from many state units, the board officials had a meeting to discuss the way forward.

"We are exploring the possibility of staging Ranji Trophy, cases were going up when it was postponed, now they seem to be coming down. The operations team is working on whether we can do the league stage next month and complete the rest of the tournament later (post IPL)," Dhumal told PTI after the meeting.

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah were also part of the meeting.

According to the report, the plan is to hold the league phase for a month, starting in February till March and then have the next phase in June-July.

“The operations team will work out the logistics and factor in the weather, venue availability as well as availability of players. We are very keen to organise the tournament and that is why we are exploring all possibilities to stage it without compromising players’ safety,” Dhumal added.

The Ranji Trophy couldn’t take place last season due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the logistical obstacles faced for having an extended bio-bubble for 38 teams.

The BCCI had paid 50 percent of the match fees as compensation to all first-class cricketers who endured financial losses.

If the First-Class doesn’t go ahead this season, it will certainly impact the BCCI’s pathways cricket like India A team, which is largely selected on the basis of Rani Trophy performance.

(With PTI inputs)