Australian umpire Ben Treloar will officiate in two Ranji Trophy matches, while India’s Parashar Joshi will travel Down Under to stand in two Sheffield Shield matches and one One Day Cup fixture as part of an exchange programme between the governing bodies of the two countries.

Treloar will officiate Delhi’s Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat from October 18 to 21 in Delhi before standing in Mumbai’s clash with Haryana from October 26 to 29 in Mumbai, a Cricket Australia release stated.

Meanhwhile, Joshi’s Australian exchange will begin with Queensland’s Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania at the Gabba from November 11 to 14.

He will then officiate in the sides’ One Day Cup fixture at the same venue on November 16 before completing the program in the Sheffield Shield clash between New South Wales and Queensland at the SCG from November 22 to 25.

The Australian brings significant experience to the exchange, having officiated in 30 First-Class matches, 20 List A matches and 39 Big Bash League games. He has also stood in two Women’s One Day Internationals and four Women’s T20 Internationals.

Away from the field, Treloar works as Cricket New South Wales’ Umpire Education Officer, helping develop the next generation of match officials. His contribution to umpire education has been recognised with four George Borwick Memorial Awards from the New South Wales Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association.

Joshi will head to Australia with an impressive domestic record, having officiated in 19 First-Class matches across the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy, 32 List A matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and Deodhar Trophy, and 40 T20 matches, including appointments in the Indian Premier League and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has stepped in to prevent Arunachal Pradesh from forfeiting further matches this season by organising selection trials for the State’s men’s and women’s teams across age groups and at the senior level.

The move follows Arunachal’s forfeiture of its Ranji Trophy opener against Nagaland and its failure to field teams in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy and Under-19 women’s T20 Trophy amid a legal dispute between two factions of the Arunachal Cricket Association (ACA) pending before the Gauhati High Court’s Itanagar Bench.

BCCI Apex Council member M. Khairul Jamal Majumdar will convene the selection process, which will be overseen by an independent panel comprising former Assam players Satya Gopal Chakraborty, Jayanta Chowdhury and Deep Bora. The panel will select squads for the Ranji Trophy, Col. C.K. Nayudu Trophy, senior women’s T20 Trophy and Vijay Merchant Trophy.

“The BCCI will do everything, keeping the players’ interest in mind,” BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia told The Hindu. “We decided to step in and ensure that the players don’t suffer.”

To prevent local interference, the BCCI has advertised the trials in newspapers, inviting players to participate. “There will be no outside interference. The three-member committee will independently conduct the trials and pick the squads based on merit,” Saikia said.

The Board’s intervention follows appeals from cricketers after the Ranji Trophy forfeiture.

When Mithun Manhas rang the bell to signal the start of play in the Irani Cup in Srinagar on Thursday (October 1, 2026), the significance of it was not just confined to his current position as BCCI president. The 49-year-old enjoys an intimacy with this region on multiple fronts: he was born in Jammu, concluded his long playing career by representing J&K for two seasons, and took his first steps as administrator in the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).

It was during Manhas’ time in the JKCA subcommittee that Auqib Nabi began grabbing attention as a pace bowler of promise. If Manhas has been elevated to the BCCI top brass since then, Nabi’s ascent has seen him become the third cricketer from J&K to play for India.

After the opening day’s play in the Irani Cup, Manhas praised Nabi for his entry into the Indian set-up. “This definitely proves that you could be from anywhere. He is from Baramulla. If you look at his story, it is very inspiring. There are some other players who have not yet come to the forefront, but they have similar stories. If you are talented, hardworking and have passion, you can definitely play for the country,” Manhas told the media on Thursday.

Manhas did acknowledge the need for better infrastructure in the districts of J&K as well.

“When I was part of the subcommittee, we used to organise talent hunt programmes. Now, the need of the hour is to go further than that. We need to have grounds there. We used to get the talent to Srinagar or Jammu and then organise camps. It will take some time, but I think it’s on the right track. Hopefully, the JKCA has chalked out plans on how to make stadiums in Jammu, Kashmir and other adjoining districts as well. You’ll hopefully see that in a year or so,” he said.

The domestic cricket umpires and match referees are set for a raise, after the BCCI Annual General Meeting on Friday approved a proposal to restructure their fees and introduce a more stringent performance-based grading system.

“The umpires will now be graded in four categories. Their fees per day have been enhanced substantially. So far as match referees are concerned, we have also revised their match fees structure,” BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia said after the AGM.

While the BCCI did not spell out the revised slabs, it is understood that the match fees for umpires will be increased by at least 30%.

The last major revision of domestic umpiring fees came in 2017-18, when the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators was overseeing the board. Since then, umpires in the top two grades have been paid ₹40,000 per match day, while those in the other grades receive ₹30,000 per day.

Match referees were paid ₹30,000 per match day following the 2017-18 restructuring, before their fee was subsequently raised to ₹40,000.

The BCCI, however, is yet to finalise a similar restructuring for scorers. “As far as the scorers are concerned, we will need some more time to assess their situations,” Saikia said.

As per merit

“All the umpires’ postings will be done as per merits by the assessment team,” Saikia said. “And at the end of every season, there will be a relegation and promotion for 10 umpires from each grade. This will make them very alert throughout the season and that will ultimately help the game of cricket.”

Umpiring standards have been a recurring point of discussion in domestic cricket, with appointments for some critical matches occasionally prompting questions over the objectivity of the process. The BCCI has maintained that an internal mechanism is in place for assessing officials.

Saikia stressed the importance of competence among umpires, given the potential impact of their decisions on players. “Some players’ future depends on the decision of the umpires, so they have to be very competent and very alert,” he said.

The IPL players’ auction for the 2027 season is set to be held in India with league chairman Arun Dhumal saying that he is keen to bring the event back home after holding it overseas for the past three years.

The past three editions of the auction were held in Dubai, Jeddah (mega auction) and Abu Dhabi.

“Every year we try for this to happen in India, but we don’t get the venue given the heavy marriage season. So, we definitely want it to be here this year, given that it would be a smaller auction and hopefully we will get the venue,” Mr. Dhumal, who is set to be re-elected as IPL chairman during the BCCI AGM on September 18, told PTI.

The host city of the auction will be decided based on the availability of BCCI’s preferred venue.

At a recent Governing Council meeting, the contentious Impact Player concept was also discussed after the BCCI asked the teams for fresh feedback on the rule that is supposed to be in place till 2027.

Among the players who have expressed their reservations on the Impact Player rule are India ODI and Test captain Shubman Gill, former captain Rohit Sharma, star all-rounder Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel. Majority of them argue that it dilutes the role of an all-rounder.

Ahead of IPL 2026, majority of captains had conveyed their reservations to the BCCI, fuelling fresh calls for scrapping of the rule. The BCCI is open to reviewing the Impact Player concept, said Dhumal.

“The matter is under discussion. Will take feedback from all the stakeholders and then take a call on this,” Mr. Dhumal added.

The strategic rule allows teams to make a substitution at any stage of the game.

Apart from Mr. Dhumal, Khairul Majumdar will also be re-elected on the IPL Governing Council on the sidelines of the AGM this week.

The Bombay High Court on Thursday (September 10, 2026) asked 12 holders of OCI cards, who have moved petitions against a rule of the BCCI that requires a passport of India for players in its tournaments, to add the Government at the Centre as a party. The Court issued notice to the Government and said the matter will be heard on October 14.

A bench of Mahesh Chandra Tripathi, who heads the court, and Judge Advait Sethna said the Government at the Centre should be a respondent in these petitions. The bench said this would help it know the stand of the Government. The bench said an order in this matter could have consequences.

The bench said, “If we pass an order and a consequence follows, and the Government seeks a recall, then what? If the Government says no holder of an OCI card can represent the country, it will help. You should implead the Government as a respondent.”

The petitions include Kavin Kartik and 11 minors. The minors were born in countries outside India. They acquired citizenship of those countries by birth. Their parents are nationals of India. The minors hold OCI cards, and reside in India, and play cricket.

The petitions are challenging a decision of the BCCI from April 2024. The BCCI has decided that a player must hold a passport of India to take part in tournaments that bodies under the BCCI organise. The BCCI has banned players with citizenship of another country from these tournaments. The BCCI said the decision aims to ensure citizens of India get chances for selection in teams of the country and teams across countries.

Advocates Kunal Cheema and Datta Mane appeared for the petitioners. They argued that the BCCI is an independent body, not the Government, and that the decision affects rights of people. Mr. Cheema said, “If children are not allowed to play now, what about their rights and development?”

The bench asked Mr. Cheema, “If citizens of India say OCI card holders get benefit and they lose rights, then what?” The bench pointed to players from Afghanistan who have settled in India and sought citizenship of India to play with the BCCI. The bench said it wanted to know the stand of the Government.

Mr. Cheema said the BCCI permits holders of OCI cards, and people from countries outside India, to play in the IPL. The bench asked him not to mix issues. The bench said, “The IPL is not the BCCI. It is a venture for money. Players in the IPL do not represent the country. We are not against the rights of a child to play and develop. We have not made up our mind. We want to know the version of the Government.”

The bench issued notice to the Government. It directed the Government to file an affidavit-in-reply, a document, to these petitions. The matter will be heard on October 14.

BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia on Monday (September 7, 2026) said the historic one-off T20 International between India and Japan this month will be a significant moment in cricket’s journey to become a global sport by connecting to a new audience.

India and Japan are set to lock horns for the first time in a historic T20I in Japan on September 22, ahead of the men’s cricket competition at the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya. The Games will start on September 19.

The match will be played at the Sano International Cricket Ground in Tochigi Prefecture. Played under the banner of the Suzuki Cup, it will commemorate the 75th anniversary of India–Japan diplomatic relations.

Mr. Saikia said the match is an effort of ICC chairman Jay Shah to take cricket to newer territories.

“Cricket’s global journey is being shaped by moments that take the game beyond its traditional boundaries. The India–Japan T20I match on 22nd September,’26 is one such moment taking international cricket to Japan, connecting with a new audience and strengthening the game’s presence in a region with immense potential,” Mr. Saikia wrote on ‘X’.

“It is also an opportunity to recognise the vision and groundwork laid by Shri Jay Shah during his tenure as BCCI Secretary, and now as ICC Chairman, in placing the global growth of cricket firmly at the heart of the sport’s future. From expanding cricket into new territories to building a stronger pathway towards the Olympic movement, the ambition has always been clear: make cricket more accessible, more inclusive and truly global,” he added.

Mr. Saikia said BCCI is committed to working towards making cricket a global sport.

“India-Japan is more than a cricket match. It represents the direction in which our sport is moving from a global ambition to a global reality,” he said.

“The journey has begun. And there is much more to come.” Ranked No.1, India are the reigning T20 World Cup champions, while Japan are placed 41st in ICC T20 rankings.

The match will also help India acclimatise to Japanese conditions and give them valuable game time to fine-tune combinations and build momentum ahead of the Asian Games.

Seeded directly into the knockout stage, India will begin their Asian Games campaign in the quarterfinals on September 28.

The Indian team will be led by Shreyas Iyer, with vice-captain Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson and teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi among the key names in the squad.

A scheduling mess by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) could leave Rest of India with a depleted squad for its prestigious Irani Cup contest against Ranji Trophy champion Jammu and Kashmir.

Following the convention, the Irani Cup is scheduled in Srinagar, the home of Jammu and Kashmir, from October 1 to 5. The fixture, however, clashes with the second of two multi-day games between India-A and Australia-A, set to be hosted in Puducherry from September 29 to October 2.

The Rest of India squad has traditionally been the most star-studded First Class unit after the Test side. The overlap of the matches, though, will leave the National selection committee to take a difficult decision: field a full-strength team against Australia-A or prioritise the Irani Cup as the premier domestic fixture.

The selectors could also attempt a balancing act by splitting the prominent players between the sides. An insider at the BCCI Centre of Excellence, which is closely involved in planning the A-tour itinerary along with the Board’s cricket operations wing, said that the situation could have been avoided had the three one-dayers against Australia-A been scheduled between the two four-day games.

But, the clash could provide an “opportunity” for more players to make a case at a higher level. Sandeep Patil, the 1983 World Cup champion and a mentor of Mumbai’s Ranji team, preferred to look at that aspect.

“Instead of 11 or 12, double the number of players will get an opportunity to deliver a strong show,” Patil said. “Due to such a tight calendar, such clashes have become a part of it. I won’t even term it unfortunate since it’s not just happening in India. All the major cricket nations are facing the same dilemma,” he said.

The schedule: Irani Cup: Oct. 1 to 5 at Srinagar.

India-A vs. Australia-A: Multi-day: Sept. 22 to 25 and Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 (both at Puducherry); one-dayers: Oct. 6, 9 & 11 (all at Puducherry).

Chennai’s M.A. Chidambaram Stadium will host the final of the Duleep Trophy from September 6 to 10. The BCCI has decided to move the summit clash from Bengaluru to allow fans a chance to watch the country’s top players in action. While the initial plan was to hold the entire tournament at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in the Garden City, only the quarterfinal and semifinals will now be held on campus.

Last year, the Duleep Trophy was held fully behind closed doors at the CoE, much to the disappointment of the fans. Earlier this month, BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia had explained that there were restrictions on allowing fans at the CoE but had promised to consider hosting the final alone in a proper stadium.

“There are some government restrictions on how we use this land, and because of that, we cannot have crowds in this campus,” Saikia had explained.

Though Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium was also under consideration, the board has decided to shift it to the MAC Stadium.

The two quarterfinals will be played from August 23 to 26, with East Zone taking on North-East while North and West face off in the other encounter. The winners will take on last year’s winner Central Zone and runner-up South Zone respectively in the semifinals to be held from August 30 to September 2.

As the Indian team prepares to take on Sri Lanka, the focus is on the players who are not in the team. Jasprit Bumrah (left knee ‘niggle’), Sai Sudharsan (stress reaction in right foot and toe), Hardik Pandya (quadriceps, setback in recovery), Harshit Rana (muscle strain sustained after return from right knee ligament injury and surgery), Nitish Reddy (quadriceps), Washington Sundar (hamstring), Akash Deep (back stress) are missing.

The suspicion that players carrying injuries play in the IPL to the detriment of the country’s international prospects is growing. The IPL is admittedly an easy target. But that does not make it an implausible one. There’s too much money and prestige involved (for the owners and sponsors especially) for it to be otherwise. The BCCI is asking the right questions, but it might not like the answer.

The regularity with which elite cricketers pull a muscle or injure themselves might even suggest OTS or Over Training Syndrome. In recent years, American Simone Manuel, the first Black woman to win an individual Olympic swimming gold revealed she had OTS, bringing the condition into popular discourse.

Fitness issues

Cricket fitness is not to be confused with athletic fitness. A cricketer may be relatively inactive for long periods, and then suddenly need to sprint, dive, jump, throw, bat, or bowl at high intensity. You be at slip without touching the ball for 89.5 overs of the day, yet be sharp enough to catch off the last ball. Such fitness made Rahul Dravid for one, a great slip fielder.

The needs of individual skills in the game differ; wicketkeepers train differently from fast bowlers, for example, although a basic level of fitness has to be maintained. Players understand their bodies better than they did a couple of generations ago, and teams are accompanied by professional trainers and physios with precise routines for them.

Not so long ago, the Indian physio’s slot was the fiefdom of a gentleman whose greatest service to the team was occasionally cutting a player’s hair or running errands for him (and family). The fittest players then, Kapil Dev (who didn’t miss a single Test with a fitness issue; he played 131 of them), and Sunil Gavaskar (who didn’t believe in overdoing the gym routines, yet knew how to keep himself fit, as he continues to at the age of 77) might have been the exceptions. Despite Tiger Pataudi (superbly fit himself) laying emphasis on fitness, it never took precedence over specific skills.

Today, with so much cricket being played in so many formats (five, if you include The Hundred and T10), and over so many days in the year, fitness has become a key issue. Indian players understand the importance and focus on diet, sleep, physical workouts and keeping stress-free to maintain a certain level. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has introduced the yo-yo test and the Bronco test to quantify ‘fitness’.

‘Over fitness’ may not be real, but over training is. Younger Indian players, so conscious of matching up to the best sometimes appear like the taught strings of a tennis racquet or a tightly stretched string in a musical instrument. A slight disturbance, you hear a ‘twang’ and there goes the hamstring.

Virat Kohli, possibly the fittest Indian cricketer, has inspired a generation. He evolved as player and man who at the start his career was seen as a party-going, slightly overweight cautionary tale but soon became a focussed, fitness-conscious captain and the world’s No. 1 batter. “I know I can play 49 overs and still run 10, 12 in the last over to win a game,” he once told an interviewer.

Between 1500 and 2000 players take part in the domestic season in India, in varying conditions and at different times of the year. Injuries are a part of an athlete’s career. Yet, what is concerning now is not the inevitability of injury, but its regularity in the national squad which has the best coaches and physios available and pays focussed attention to fitness.

Do we ask too much of our players? Do the players ask too much of their bodies? Rotating players is the modern way. But when injuries persist, it is good to study patterns however uncomfortable the picture that emerges.