BCCI responds to criticism around venue allocation for Duleep Trophy

BCCI secretary Davajit Saikia has finally responded to the criticism surrounding the venue allocation for the 2026 Duleep Trophy. Saikia said they cannot allow a crowd for the matches held at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru, which is the venue for the Duleep Trophy this year, due to the restrictions put in place by the Karnataka government.

He also said the BCCI would consider the suggestion of moving the Duleep Trophy summit clash to a stadium so that spectators can turn up in large numbers and watch their favourite players battle it out in one of India's premier red-ball competitions.

"We will look into the suggestion. We still have time. We'll look into that aspect, and if required, we'll do that. But for the time being, what we have done, we have increased the number of matches which were telecast prior to this year, which were very limited," said Saikia while addressing the press at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru on Sunday.

The BCCI secretary also mentioned that they have "increased the number of matches to be telecast live" this year compared to last season, allowing fans the opportunity to be in synchronisation with the action.

"Yes, [I] agree with your suggestions. There are some restrictions when this land was allotted here that we cannot have crowd in this campus. So that is a government restriction, we cannot violate that. But very close persons of the team members can come. But this year, we have increased the number of matches to be telecast live. That way, we are giving fans (the opportunity) to watch their favourite players and teams perform in the Duleep Trophy," he added.

West Zone squad

Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Shams Mulani (vice-captain), Shardul Thakur, Sarfaraz Khan, Musheer Khan, Tushar Deshpande, Tanush Kotian, Harvik Desai (wk), Jaymeet Patel, Urvil Patel, Siddharth Desai, Atit Sheth, Prithvi Shaw, Shivalik Sharma and Mukesh Choudhary

East Zone squad

Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sudip Gharami, Mohammed Shami, Mukesh Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Suraj Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan (c), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (vice-captain), Virat Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Shikhar Mohan, Subranshu Senapati, Abhijit Sarkar, Anukul Roy, Denish Das

Central Zone squad

Rajat Patidar (c), Aryan Juyal (wk), Saransh Jain, Aman Mokhade, Kunal Chandela, Zeeshan Ansari, Aryan Pandey, Arshad Khan, Rinku Singh (vice-captain), Ayush Pandey, Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Kunal Singh Rathod (wk), Yash Thakur, Nachiket Bhute

South Zone squad 

Tilak Varma (c), Ricky Bhui (vice-captain), Abhinav Tejrana, Shaik Rasheed, K Himateja, R Smaran, N Jagadeesan, Karun Nair, T Thyagarajan, Shreyas Gopal, K Sai Teja, T Vijay, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Aman Khan, MD Nidheesh

North Zone squad

Kanhaiya Wadhawan (c, wk), Sanat Sangwan, Qamran Iqbal, Yash Dhull, Ayush Doseja, Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni (vice-capt), Nishant Sindhu, Arjun Sharma, Abid Mushtaq, Arshdeep Singh, Sunil Kumar, Anshul Kamboj, Yudhvir Singh, Nikhil Kashyap