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With the Indian Premier League (IPL) underway in the Indian subcontinent, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has reportedly made some changes in one of the domestic tournaments. According to a report published by Cricbuzz, the prestigious Duleep Trophy is set to return to its previous inter-zonal format.
However, an official confirmation around the same is still awaited, the report claims that it will be played in its original inter-zonal format from this season itself with six teams being part of it.
Duleep Trophy to be played in Bengaluru in September 2025
It is to be noted that the previous edition of Duleep Trophy was played in a four-team structure. However, reports added that a handful of associations were left unsatisfied as well as disappointed by this call. Despite this, the tournament attacted a lot of international stars from the Indian setup in First-Class competition, which was played featuring four teams as India A, India B, India C and India D.
But if the recent developments are true, they will see a return to its original six teams structure, including North Zone, South Zone, East Zone, West Zone, Central Zone and North-East Zone. Additionally, the reports have also added that the 2025-26 edition of the red-ball tournament will be played in Bengaluru from September.
Furthermore, the reports added that in the BCCI Apex Meeting it was also decided that bottom placed teams from all six groups in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy will be relegated to the Plate Group. In other key decisions taken during the meeting, the Indian board has also decided to introduce uniformity in the payment of the scorers with every scorer getting INR 15,000 per game.
