BCCI’s Corporate tournament neglect leaves players high and dry

A bumper cricket season is ahead for Indian cricket as the BCCI have announced that 918 matches will be organised, which translates to 1882 playing days between September 2016 to March 2017. However, the board has continued to give a cold shoulder to Corporate Trophy and NKP Salve Challengers tournament. Corporate Trophy has not been played for last three seasons and Challengers Trophy wasn’t scheduled last year.

However, the BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke left the status of the two tournaments open-ended. In a a text message Shirke said: “The BCCI has not scrapped any of these tournament.” However, he didn’t chose to comment on whether these tournaments have been just postponed this year or shelved. The Challengers trophy was made redundant last year after BCCI modified the format of Deodhar Trophy.

The Deodhar games were in 50-over format and played between three teams like the old Challenger series. The winner of the Vijay Hazare Trophy played along with the two teams (India A and India B) selected by national selectors. The revamp of Deodhar format was recommended by Anil Kumble-led technical committee in 2015. Corporate Trophy, the tournament that was specially created in 2009 to coax public and private sector to provide jobs for cricketers, has been out of favour due to scheduling hiccups and lack of interest in the fans. If the interest in fans in this TRP age is an indicator then it can’t be disputed that the Corporate Trophy has lost its relevance but its significance lies beyond the television screens.