BCCI scraps Deodhar Trophy

A crammed domestic schedule has prompted the BCCI to cancel the Deodhar Trophy tournament for the 2009-10 season. The decision was taken by the Tour Programmes and Fixtures Committee of the Indian board, which met in Mumbai to formulate the domestic schedule and finalise venues for the India-Australia ODI series due to be played in October this year.

"Deodhar has been dropped because of the tight schedule (for domestic cricket)", a BCCI source was quoted as saying by PTI.

The Deodhar Trophy is India's premier domestic limited-overs tournament, named after Professor DB Deodhar. A 50-over tournament, like the Duleep Trophy, which the BCCI has decided to retain for the upcoming season, it is played between the five zonal teams. The inaugural Deodhar Trophy took place in 1973-74, with an intention to groom Indian cricketers for the then relatively new limited-overs game.

West Zone were the winners last season, beating East Zone by a mammoth 218 runs in the final to take the title.