In the earliest ever start for an Indian domestic season, the Duleep Trophy – the interzonal first-class competition – will kick off on June 28 on the 2023-24 calendar, while the Deodhar Trophy – the interzonal 50-over tournament – will return after a break of three years. The season, consisting of 1846 games, will conclude with the Ranji Trophy, which runs from January 5 to March 14.
The Duleep Trophy and Deodhar Trophy are played in six zones: Central, South, North, East, West and Northeast. The Irani Cup, played between defending Ranji Trophy champions Saurashtra and the rest of India, kicks off on October 1.
The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, the domestic T20 tournament, will begin on October 16 and run until November 6, while the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the 50-over tournament, will be played between November 23 and December 15. Both tournaments will have 38 teams, divided into two pools of seven teams and three pools of eight teams.
The women’s domestic cricket season begins with the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy, played from 19 October to 9 November. It is followed by the Senior Women’s Interzonal Trophy, which begins on November 24 and runs through December 4.
After a one-month hiatus, the Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy will begin on January 4. The final will be played on January 26.
However, the Senior Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy, Senior Women’s Inter-Zonal One Day Trophy, Under-19 Women’s T20 Challenger Trophy and Under-19 Women’s Quadrangular, which were all played last season, are missing from this year’s schedule.
The Ranji Trophy, like last season, will be played in two divisions: elite and plate. The elite group consists of 32 teams, divided into four groups of eight each. The top two teams from each group qualify for the quarter-finals, while the bottom two teams from all four groups combined are relegated to the plate division next season.
The record group has six teams, with the best four making it to the semi-finals. The two finalists will be promoted to the elite division next year.
The Senior Women’s One-Day Trophy, as well as the T20 Trophy, has two groups of eight teams each and three groups of seven teams each. In both tournaments, the top two teams from each group qualify for the knockouts. Among them, the teams from one to six will qualify directly for the quarterfinals, while the teams from seven to ten will play pre-quarterfinals. The Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy also follow similar knockout qualifications.
In the Women’s Inter-Zone T20 Cup, played between six zones, the top two teams in the league stage qualify for the final.
Sruthi Ravindranath is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo