Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021 to take place from February 20 to March 14

The Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021 will be played between February 20 and March 14 in six cities. 38 teams will compete in the tournament, divided into six different categories. Karnataka, who plunged out early in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2020-2021, are the defending champions of the domestic 50-over tournament in India.

All the teams have been split into five elite groups, with six teams in each group. The last group is the Plate group which consists of eight teams. Teams in the Elite Groups A, B, C, D, and E are going to play across different locations in Surat, Indore, Bengaluru, Jaipur, and Kolkata, respectively. Talking about the Plate group teams, they will play all their games in Chennai.

All players will have to fulfill the COVID-19 protocols and have to gather in the playing location a week before the start of the tournament. The players will undergo mandatory quarantine, with three COVID-19 tests on February 13,15 and 17. After the tests, training sessions will begin on February 18 and 19. 

The league phase of the competition begins on February 20

The Vijay Hazare Trophy's league phase will take place between February 20 and March 1, with the knockout stages starting March 7. The quarterfinals will be played on March 8 and 9, semi-finals are scheduled for March 11, and the Final will take place on March 14. The officials have not yet declared the venues for the knockout matches. However, the teams qualifying for the knockouts will once again have to undergo two Covid-19 tests on March 2 and 4.

The crowd factor in the domestic tournament is going to be a massive concern as BCCI has not yet announced if the fans will be allowed to attend.

Vijay Hazare Trophy 2021 Groups

Elite A

Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Hyderabad, Baroda, Tripura, Goa.

Venue: Surat

Elite B

Punjab, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Vidarbha, Andhra Pradesh.

Venue: Indore

Elite C

Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha, Karnataka, Railways, Bihar.

Venue: Bengaluru.

Elite D

Mumbai, Maharashtra, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Pondicherry. Venue: Jaipur

Elite E

Services, Jammu & Kashmir, Bengal, Saurashtra, Haryana, Chandigarh. Venue: Kolkata.

Plate Group

Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Uttarakhand,  Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim.

Venue: Chennai

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