The T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy will be played in bio-secure bubble from January 10 to 29 at seven venues — Bengaluru, Kolkata Vadodara, Indore, Mumbai, Chennai, and Ahmedabad, which will host all seven knockout matches, starting with quarterfinals. All 38 teams and personnel connected with the tournament will have to undergo three Covid-19 tests and quarantine before the start of matches at each centre.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also announced that before the start of quarterfinals in Ahmedabad, the teams would undergo another two Covid tests. The Covid-19 tests will be done on January 2, 4, and 6, at the teams’ respective hotels, before they commence practice sessions on January 8.

Surprisingly, Delhi, which meets all the requirements of the tournament like this, having more than one ground and Covid hospitals, has not been chosen among the venues. The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) recently chose a new president, Rohan Jaitley, son of late Arun Jaitley, a DDCA president and Union Minister.

Defending champions Karnataka will begin their title defence against Jammu and Kashmir on January 10 in Bengaluru as the 2020-21 Indian domestic season begins belatedly due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bengaluru, Kolkata, Vadodara, Indore and Mumbai have been picked as venues for the five Elite groups while Chennai will host the plate group games, the BCCI has conveyed to its affiliated units.

Ahmedabad’s Sardar Patel Stadium will host all knockout games, with the four quarter-finals to be played as double-headers on January 26 and 27, the semi-finals on January 29 and the final on January 31.

After the completion of the group stage matches, eight teams will travel to Ahmedabad on January 19, and will undergo two more Covid-19 tests upon arrival on January 20 and 22.

“The BCCI will start the domestic season 2020-21 with the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament from January 10, 2021 onwards. The teams are required to assemble in their respective host cities on or before January 2, 2021, and will be needed to undergo Covid-19 testing procedures and quarantine in accordance with the state regulatory authorities,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a mail sent to the state associations on Wednesday.

Groups:

Elite A (Venue: Bengaluru): Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Railways, Tripura

Elite B (Kolkata): Odisha, Bengal, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Hyderabad

Elite C (Vadodara): Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Baroda, Uttarakhand

Elite D (Goa): Services, Saurashtra, Vidarbha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Goa

Elite E (Mumbai): Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala, Puducherry

Plate (Chennai): Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Bihar, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh