NEW DELHI: In a breakthrough for northeastern states, the committee of administrators (CoA) on Friday assured the Indian cricket board's (BCCI) six state units that they will be part of the Ranji Trophy from the next season. The six northeast teams will participate in addition to the existing 28 Ranji Trophy teams if the Lodha reforms are implemented by state units. BCCI GM (game development) Ratnakar Shetty has been given charge of their smooth integration.In a meeting with the CoA here, the six northeastern states — Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh — were also assured of playing the BCCI age group categories (U-16, U-23) from this season onwards. However, the states, to be treated as a zone, will have to wait for clearance from BCCI technical committee head Sourav Ganguly to take part in under-19 all-India event. This is because the schedule has already been prepared.''Mr (Vinod) Rai told us that since the Ranji Trophy is starting from Oct 6, it will be difficult to play this season. However we will be playing as individual states from next season. After all these years, this is the first time we have got a complete assurance. Prof Shetty will look into the implementation part,'' NE convenor Naba Bhattacharjee told reporters here.Meanwhile, CoA chairman Rai said the new constitution for the BCCI is ready and will be submitted in the Supreme Court on Monday. He, however, said that there will be no sixth status report. During its Aug 23 hearing, the apex court had instructed the COA to prepare a draft of the new constitution as per the recommendations of the Justice (retd) RM Lodha committee . The court had ordered that the draft constitution should be prepared by Aug 30, considering the fact that the BCCI elections are due on Sept 30.

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