The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced venues for India's white-ball series against New Zealand in 2026 and also approved the domestic season 2025-26 with some notable changes.
The New Zealand white-ball series is slated to start from 11th January 2026 with three ODIs, followed by a five-match T20I series ahead of the T20 World Cup 2026. According to the schedule, Baroda, Rajkot and Indore will host the three ODIs, while Nagpur, Raipur, Guwahati, Vizag and Trivandrum will host the five T20Is.
BCCI makes changes to domestic season
The Indian Board also made some changes to the domestic season. "The Duleep Trophy and Senior Women’s Challenger tournaments will now be contested between six zonal teams selected by zonal selectors," BCCI wrote in a statement. "Plate Group restructuring has been introduced across age categories. The bottom 6 teams (based on the previous season’s rankings) will be placed in the Plate Group for limited-overs tournaments.
"Promotion/relegation rules updated: Only one team will be promoted/relegated between Elite and Plate groups going forward," it added.
Also, the Indian Board has confirmed that the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Senior Women’s T20 Trophy "will now include a Super League stage instead of a traditional knockout."
BCCI forms committee to prevent Bengaluru stampede-like situations
Meanwhile, the Indian Board formed a three-member committee to prevent the Bengaluru stampede-like situations in the future. Secretary Jay Shah, Treasurer Prabhtej Singh Bhatia and BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla are the three members part of the committee. Notably, the committee will formulate the guidelines within 15 days for preventive measures.
Before this, the Indian Board had not issued a public statement on the Bengaluru stampede that killed 11 people outside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in the wake of celebrations of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's maiden IPL win.
Following the stampede, the police had detained RCB's marketing head Nikhil Sosale. They had also detained several other individuals, including Sunil Mathew from the event management firm DNA, and staff members Kiran and Sumanth.