Ganguly, Karim acknowledge Vijay Hazare issues, aim at rectification

After being appointed as the BCCI president, Sourav Ganguly admitted to the issues that plague the Vijay Hazare Trophy in his press conference on Wednesday. The final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy will take place on October 25 as Karnataka face Tamil Nadu at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Apart from Ganguly, BCCI General Manager Saba Karim too was positive about making a change in the rules for the Vijay Hazare Trophy in a recent interview with a media portal.

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Pre-established rules were being followed

Two out of the four quarter-finals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy were not played due to rains and Ganguly was asked why there were no reserve days in place for the knockout matches. Ganguly acknowledged the need for reserve days but clarified that the teams that qualified without being able to play the quarter-finals did so on the basis of rules which were established before the tournament began. In case of a match not being played, the team with more wins in the group stage would progress further and that is what happened when Tamil Nadu and Chattisgarh progressed into the semi-finals after their quarter-finals got washed out. He ended by acknowledging the fact that even though the rule was put in place to give importance to group stage performance, the BCCI would consider the rules for reserve days for knockout matches in future editions of the competition. 

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Karim explains how scheduling is hard

During the conversation, Saba Karim added that the scheduling was particularly hard because players need a break during Diwali and the New Year as well. Adding reserve days would only make the schedule lengthier. He further stated that adding reserve days for the Vijay Hazare trophy could create demands from other tournaments as there are no reserve days for the Ranji Trophy. 

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Is the knockout rule unfair?

Another issue which was brought into the limelight by Punjab skipper Mandeep Singh was that every group in the Vijay Hazare Trophy plays different number of matches. If an unplayable knockout gets decided in favour of a team who has more wins, it may end up as unfair because the other team may have not even played as many matches as its opponent during the group stage. Karim acknowledged that the BCCI would also take a look at this since this is indeed a legitimate issue but he clarified again that no team's board objected to this rule before the season went through.

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