Big home season awaits team India as BCCI announces 2016/17 schedule: The BCCI have announced schedules for International and domestic cricket season of 2016-17 to be played in India. Team India will play 13 Tests, 8 One Day Internationals and 3 T20 Internationals in this season from October 2016 to March 2017. There are six new venues for Tests as BCCI has kept its commitment of taking Test cricket to lesser known cities. They are Visakhapatnam, Rajkot, Pune, Ranchi, Dharmasala and Indore. The Tour Programme and Fixtures Committee of the BCCI met in Mumbai and announced the schedule for the series against New Zealand, England, Australia and Bangladesh.

New Zealand will visit India in September this year and play three Tests and five ODIs. The three Test match series against New Zealand will be played at Indore, Kanpur and Kolkata. Dharamsala, Delhi, Mohali, Ranchi and Vizag will host the five ODI’s against New Zealand.

Then it will be time for England cricket to arrive for five Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is to be played between November and January. Five Test matches against England will be played at Mohali, Rajkot, Mumbai, Vizag and Chennai. Pune, Cuttack and Kolkata will be the venues for the three ODI’s. Bengaluru, Nagpur and Kanpur will host the three T20I’s against England.

Then World Champions Australia will tour India in February 2017 to play four Test matches between Feb-Mar hosted by Bengaluru, Dharmasala, Ranchi and Pune.

Domestic season will start in the month of September where in for the first time ever, Duleep Trophy will be played with a Pink Ball under lights. During the entire season 918 matches will be organized that includes Ranji trophy, Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, Irani Trophy, Deodhar Trophy, Women’s cricket and all other age group cricket.

Bangladesh will visit for a one-off Test during this season, their first Test tour to India since they were given Full Member status in 2000. The date for this Test was not announced however Hyderabad was fixed as the venue for this.

BCCI President, Anurag Thakur said, “I welcome the new Test venues hosting this prestigious format of cricket and their arrival will take Test match cricket, to every corner of the country. We are equally excited about the domestic season as we will be playing the Duleep trophy with the pink ball under lights and take this opportunity to welcome Chhattisgarh, who will play Ranji trophy for the first time. A combined team of Affiliate & Associate states will participate in the junior age group tournaments, which will provide the much needed opportunity to the emerging players from these areas. This further reaffirms our commitment to spread the game by providing the appropriate platforms to our next generation cricketer.”

 

MONTH	TOURNAMENT
Sep-Nov 2016	New Zealand tour of India 3 Tests, 5 ODIs
Nov-Jan 2017	England tour of India 5 Tests, 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is
Feb-Mar 2017	Australia tour of India 4 Tests