The refurbished Sardar Patel stadium in Ahmedabad will host the knock-out matches of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 championship, from January 20-31. (More Cricket News)
As per the letter shared by BCCI secretary Jay Shah to all the secretaries of the state associations, the teams have been divided into six Groups – five Elite Groups and one Plate Group with Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Indore, Chennai and Vadodara being the venues for league games.
"The BCCI will start the domestic season 2020-21 with the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament from January 10th 2021, onwards," Shah stated in the letter, a copy of which is in possession of PTI.
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"The teams are required to assemble in their respective host cities on or before January 2, 2021, and will be needed to undergo COVID-19 testing procedures and quarantine in accordance with the state regulatory authorities," Shah said.
Chennai will be hosting the matches of the Plate Group, which comprises eight teams, while the other 30 teams have been divided into five Elite Groups, with each Group, having six teams.
The knock-outs are scheduled to start on January 26, with the quarter-finals to be played on January 26 and 27, while the two semi-finals will be played on January 29 and the final on January 31 in Ahmedabad.
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The players will have to undergo three COVID-19 tests on January 2, 4 and 6, the results of which will be declared on the subsequent day.
Even before the knock-outs, the players will be undergoing two COVID-19 tests, one on January 20 and the other on January 22.
Karnataka, who are the defending champions, have been placed in Elite Group A, and will be playing their matches in Bengaluru.
Domestic giants Mumbai have been placed in Elite Group E and will play their matches in Mumbai, while Bengal have been placed in Elite Group B and will play their matches in Kolkata.
This is the first tournament of the 2020-21 season, which has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Groups:
Elite Group A: Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Railways, Tripura (Venue – Bengaluru)
Elite Group B: Odisha, Bengal, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Hyderabad (Venue – Kolkata)
Elite Group C: Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Baroda, Uttarakhand (Venue – Vadodara)
Elite Group D: Services, Saurashtra, Vidarbha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Goa (Venue – Indore)
Elite Group E: Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala, Puducherry (Venue – Mumbai)
Plate Group: Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Bihar, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh (Venue - Chennai).
