BCCI distance itself from scheduling India's domestic calendar

The schedule will now be prepared by a private company named ‘Sportsmechanics’.

Ex Indian cricketers have not agreed to help the board . (PTI)

In what will be a first timer for BCCI, the Indian cricketing governing body has denied the responsibility to prepare the calendar for the Indian domestic season. 

The BCCI, in fact, has given the responsibility to a private company. The BCCI, after having recently brought on board a new general manager (operations) in Saba Karim alongside other recruitments, including the hiring of hospitality-industry professional Tufan Ghosh as the COO at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), has distanced itself from the fundamental responsibility of scheduling the country’s vast domestic season.

The Indian cricket board has outsourced this responsibility to ‘Sportsmechanics’, a company founded by the Indian team’s former video analyst S Ramakrishnan, popularly known as ‘Ramky’ in the cricket circles.

“Top-notch solutions with agile advisory services, advance analytics and technology platforms to help sports bodies, athletes, teams, brands and broadcasters achieve better outcomes" read the website's description. 


Surprisingly, none of the ex-India cricketers – regardless of whether they are members with state associations or not – were approached before the finalizing of the domestic calendar. “What’s the technical committee’s responsibility? Just conducting meetings and then agreeing to outsource everything to private companies? By the way, you can find out which ex-cricketers have a stake in this private company (Sportsmechanics),” said BCCI members.

Until last year, BCCI used the services of ‘Sportsmechanics’ merely to optimize its domestic circuit in order to facilitate services like the appointment of umpires, match referees and other logistical solutions.

The BCCI had recently released its new domestic calendar in which it proposed to introduce pre-quarterfinals in the Ranji Trophy. It took a decision to implement the same format in the junior tournaments and positioned the sequence of domestic tournaments in the following order: Duleep Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Ranji Trophy League phase, Mushtaq Ali T20, Ranji Trophy knockouts, Deodhar Trophy. 

 
 

By Anshuman Roy - 27 Apr, 2018

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