Mumbai: The prestigious Duleep Trophy will return to the domestic first class cricket calendar in the 2016-17 season in a new avatar with matches being day-night affairs played with a pink ball, it was announced on Tuesday.

The traditional tournament, started by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the 1961-62 season, wasn't played last year due to a cramped schedule. But it will make a return in the glamorous new model, according to BCCI.