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The 2025-26 Indian domestic cricket season has begun with the ongoing Duldeep Trophy 2025, which is currently underway at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) Ground in Bengaluru on Thursday, August 28. The Zonal teams, East Zone, West Zone, South Zone, North East Zone, and Central Zone vie for the prestigious silverware.

North Zone and East Zone have locked horns in quarterfinal 1, while Central Zone is taking on North East Zone in the 2nd quarterfinal of the tournament. The South Zone and West Zone will play in two different semifinals against the winner of both quarterfinals, with the final scheduled to be played in the second week of September, marking the conclusion of the opening tournament of India’s domestic season.

The prestigious Duleep Trophy traditionally serves as the curtain-raiser to India’s domestic cricket calendar before the Ranji Trophy, and provides a platform for players to push their case for national selection.

No live telecast for Duleep Trophy

As the Duleep Trophy quarterfinals are underway at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) Ground in Bengaluru, there is no live telecast of the domestic tournament. Despite the Indian cricket board being tied up with a broadcaster for cricket matches in India, international or domestic, the opening tournament of India’s domestic season has been left without live coverage.

On the eve of quarterfinals, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Domestic took to their X handle and wrote, “Ready, set, cricket! New Domestic Season, renewed energy, fresh battles - it all starts with the #DuleepTrophy. Follow all the live scores only on http://BCCI.TV and the BCCI Official Apps.”

However, there was no mention of the live telecast or streaming arrangements.

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Duldeep Trophy is one of the prestigious domestic red-ball tournaments in India, having started in 1961, and has historically been one of the key stages, alongside Ranji Trophy, for cricketers to showcase their skills and stake a claim for higher honours, including a selection to the national team.

Several Indian greats, including Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Dilip Vengsarkar, and others, have featured in the tournament while representing respective zonal teams.

Fans slam BCCI over no live telecast of the Duleep Trophy

As the BCCI decided not to live telecast the ongoing Duldeep Trophy, the fans expressed their anger on social media, especially X (formerly Twitter), calling it disrespectful to a prestigious domestic cricket tournament.

Taking to their X handles, Indian cricket fans lambasted the BCCI for no live telecast of the Duleep Trophy, terming it ‘Outrageous’ and ‘Unfair’ for fans, who wish to see the matches live, especially when top cricketers are taking part in the prestigious tournament. Others stated that despite the BCCI being the richest board, proper arrangements for a live telecast or streaming of the Duleep Trophy have still not been made.

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The ongoing Duleep Trophy has the presence of top players, including Mohammed Shami, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Rajat Patidar, Ishan Kishan, Sarfaraz Khan, and Devdutt Padikkal.

After India’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy series defeat to Australia in January this year, the BCCI has made it mandatory for all the contracted players to participate in domestic cricket in order to be considered sfor election for international matches. The decision was backed by head coach Gautam Gambhir