Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament: An opportunity to stake Ranji claims

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Kalpathi all-India Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament will begin at various grounds here from Thursday against the backdrop of rain.
Buchi Babu provides the Tamil Nadu cricketers a great opportunity to stake their claims for the Ranji team while the selector would also be keenly watching the tournament to get the combination right for the premier national competition.
K.S. Viswanathan, secretary of the TNCA, said, “To help states whose Ranji Trophy preparations are affected by the monsoon, cricket associations of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad have decided to conduct the KSCA tournament, Buchi Babu and Moinud-Dowlah in a sequence from July to September. There has been an overwhelming response to Buchi Babu this year but due to time constraints we have reduced the number of entries to 13 from 16.” Tamil Nadu coach W.V.Raman said Buchi Babu would be an important preparatory tournaments ahead for the Ranji Trophy. “It’s not only vital for youngsters to perform to get into Ranji contention but experienced cricketers can also gain from facing tough opponents,” the former India opener added.
Raman lauded the selectors for distributing young players to all three Tamil Nadu teams — TNCA XI, TNCA President’s XI and TNCA Combined Districts — in Buchi Babu. “Performance in the league, talent and an eye on the future of TN cricket have been taken into consideration in selection,” he said. TEAMS GROUP A: Karnataka, Bengal, Andhra. Group B: UPCA, TNCA XI, Tripura. Group C: Haryana, Hyderabad, TNCA Combined Districts. Group D: Assam, TNCA President's XI, Baroda, Kerala.
First Round Fixture (Thursday and Friday): At M.A. Chidambaram Stadium: Karnataka vs Bengal.IIT-Chemplast ground: UPCA vs TNCA XI. RKMVivekananda: Haryana vs Hyderabad. MRF Pachaiyappa's: Assam vs TNCA President's XI.Murugappa ground: Baroda vs Kerala.
Playing conditions in a nutshell:
Two-day matches -seven hours of play each day. 9am to 11.30am; 12.10pm to 2.40pm; 3pm to 5pm.
One innings per side and the innings will be restricted to 100 overs provided there is no interruption of play.
Last day's play shall be extended even beyond the one-hour extension time till a result is achieved if light permits.
The captain of the fielding team may take a new ball after 80 overs.
It's mandatory to have three fielders in regular close catching position for a minimum of 90 overs.
Teams should maintain an over rate of 15 per hour.
Failing to do so, the team will be slapped with point penalty.