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Schedule for Indian Cricket 2016-17 out! Season to see a number of firsts

Speed News Desk | Updated on: 10 February 2017, 1:50 IST

The Tour Programme and Fixtures Committee of the BCCI met in Mumbai on 9 June to finalise the schedules for International and domestic cricket season of 2016-17.

India Cricket's domestic season will kick off in the month of September. For the first time ever, the Duleep Trophy will be played under lights with a pink ball this season.

A total of 918 matches will be organised during the season - including the Ranji trophy, the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy, the Irani Trophy. This translates into 1882 playing days between September 2016 to March 2017.

Rajkot, Vizag, Pune, Dharamsala, Ranchi and Indore will host their first-ever test matches in the upcoming season, which will see India play 13 test matches, eight One Day Internationals and three T20 International matches.

The home season will commence with three test matches and five ODIs against New Zealand and five Test Matches, three ODIs and three T20Is against England.

Australia will visit India in February-March 2017 to play four Test matches, while Bangladesh is slated to play one test match in India.

The three test match series against New Zealand will be played at Indore, Kanpur and Kolkata, while Dharamsala, Delhi, Mohali, Ranchi and Vizag will host the five ODIs against NZ.

The five Test matches against England will be played at Mohali, Rajkot, Mumbai, Vizag and Chennai. India will play three ODIs and three T20s against England in Pune, Cuttack and Kolkata and Bengaluru, Nagpur and Kanpur respectively.

Australia will tour India in February 2017 to play four test matches hosted by Bengaluru, Dharamsala, Ranchi and Pune.

A standalone Test match against Bangladesh will also be played at Hyderabad.

All these venues will get matches subject to the condition that they have numbered the seats in the stadiums and fulfill all the guidelines laid down by the BCCI.

"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," BCCI president Anurag Thakur said.

"A combined team of Affiliate and 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," he said.

Honorary Secretary of the BCCI, Ajay Shirke, said, "Some of the best teams of world cricket are coming to play in India this season and we are excited to announce the schedule well ahead of time. This gives the staging associations and the BCCI, sufficient time to prepare and present, one of the most memorable cricketing seasons for our fans. I have full faith in our team at BCCI to deliver International and domestic cricket simultaneously and engage the ardent fans, on all fronts."

First published: 9 June 2016, 4:26 IST