Mumbai: Under fire on social media from fans due to the lack of live coverage of the quarterfinals of the ongoing Duleep Trophy at its Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru, the BCCI has clarified that it will telecast the final of one of the premier domestic tournaments live. The summit clash of the Duleep Trophy will be played from Sept 11-15 at the BCCI’s CEG Ground in CoE. “There will be a live telecast of the final of the Duleep Trophy. We have an agreement with our broadcaster to ensure live telecast of 100 days of domestic cricket, which means that all our domestic tournaments are covered live. The BCCI gives utmost importance to domestic cricket, which is why you will see that almost all the India players are in action in these matches,” BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia told TOI on Sunday. Deprived of any cricketing action for almost a month since the last India versus England Test concluded on Aug 4, India’s cricket fans were “frustrated and disappointed” and vented their ire against the BCCI on social media when there was no live coverage of the season’s opening domestic tournament, the Duleep Trophy. It kicked off with two quarterfinal matches being played simultaneously from Thursday, with North Zone playing against East Zone, while Central Zone took on North East Zone. This edition of the prestigious Duleep Trophy, which features several India players, marks the return to the traditional zonal format after last year’s switch to India A, B, C and D teams. The tournament will also be the first where the BCCI trials its ‘serious substitution rule’.Fans have thus been deprived of watching some fine individual performances by Auqib Nabi (five for 28 in 10.1 overs), Jharkhand left-arm spinner Manishi (six for 111 in 22.2 overs), Ankit Kumar (198), Yash Dhull (133), and Ayush Badoni (150 not out) in the North Zone versus East Zone quarterfinal.
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Danish Malewar (203), Rajat Patidar (125 & 66), Shubham Sharma (122), and Yash Rathod (87 not out & 78) in the Central Zone versus North East Zone quarterfinal. Another highlight was India’s veteran pacer Mohammed Shami’s return to action — Shami took 1-100 in 23 overs and 0-36 in 11 overs.The BCCI secretary’s statement may leave fans, already upset at the Duleep Trophy blackout so far, even more disappointed as they will miss watching the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sarfaraz Khan in action when they turn out for West Zone in the Duleep Trophy semifinal at the CoE from Sept 4. In sharp contrast, last season, all the Duleep Trophy matches, which were held in Anantapur and Bengaluru, were telecast live.
