The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Ravi Shastri accepts NCA chief’s post

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 29, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Ravi Shastri accepts NCA chief’s post

G. Viswanath

Coach selection meeting put off to an indefinite date

— File Photo

Ravi Shastri.

Mumbai: Ravi Shastri has agreed to be the Chairman of the National Cricket Academy (NCA). “Shastri has accepted the offer. He arrived on Friday from Dubai and will be in Bangalore for the opening Future Cup match between India and Australia,” said Prof. Ratnakar Shetty, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Board of Control for Cricket in India. Shastri is likely to visit the NCA facility and also meet Brijesh Patel, Secretary, Karnataka State Cricket Association.

Earlier, Ravi Shastri was offered the post of the Chairman of the NCA. Since his retirement from international cricket, Shastri, along with Sunil Gavaskar, has been the voice of Indian cricket on ESPN-STAR Sports channel. He was India’s cricket manager in Bangladesh, as a stop-gap arrangement to fill the void caused by the exit of Greg Chappell. But Shastri told the BCCI that he had media commitments and would be hard-pressed to continue after the Bangladesh tour.

The BCCI is willing to go to the extent of providing Shastri the leeway to draw his own timetable to work in Bangalore and give quality time to the trainees there. With the Indian team scheduled to play four Tests and a tri-series in Australia from December to March, Shastri too will be busy with his television commitments.

The meeting of the special committee, that has to assess the applications received for the post of the coach of the Indian team, has been put off to an indefinite date. It was scheduled to be held in Bangalore on Saturday. “There’s no specific time-frame, we have already named Lalchand Rajput as cricket manager for the seven-match series against Australia,” said Mr. Srinivasan,Treasurer, BCCI. He didn’t rule out the possibility of more people applying for the post. Following the success of the Indian team in Ireland, England and in the ICC T20 event in South Africa, the BCCI may not go on an overdrive to look for a foreign coach.

Japiur cleared

A report of Alan Hurst, the ICC observer on the viability of Japiur, Rajkot, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam and Dharamshala staging Tests/ODIs was made available to the members.

It’s understood that Jaipur — an ODI centre — has been virtually cleared to host Test matches, though the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) has to upgrade the television and umpires’ room.

Similarly Hurst has mentioned in his report that the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) should remove the CCTV inside the dressing rooms to maintain privacy of the players, put non-reclining wooden chairs in front of the dressings rooms and fulfil another minor condition to be ready to host a Test match.

Since HCA is scheduled to stage a one-day international against Australia, the ICC would await a report on the implementation of these conditions from Chris Broad, Match Referee for the Indian-Australia one-day series.

The Andhra Cricket Association has to fulfil certain conditions to be recognised as a Test match centre. The encouraging news is that Jaipur, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam could host Test matches very soon. Rajkot, though, is not in the same group; Hurst has said it has to fulfil a lot of conditions. He has not cleared Dharamshala as an international venue.

Lone voice

Lalit Modi, Vice-President, BCCI and the man behind the Indian Premier League (IPL) explained to the members all aspects of the Twenty20 league set to start next April.

There was a lone voice in Sanjay Patel, the representative from Baroda, seeking to reprieve the players who have joined the ICL, but the rest of the members simply brushed off the suggestion.

His argument was that when the players joined the ICL, the BCCI had not announced the IPL plans.

Finally, the full members were told the happy news of their share of television revenue for the year 2006-07. It’s Rs. 9.36 crore for Test and ODI staging centres and Rs. 6.7 crore for the rest, excluding the Cricket Club of India, National Cricket Club, Services Sports Control Board and the Railway Sports Promotion Board.

Meanwhile, the Indian team members will receive their share of prize money for winning the ICC Twenty20 after the ICC remits the amount to the BCCI.

“The winner’s prize money is US $ 4,90,000 (Rs. 1.95 crore). In all the team has won close to $one million. We will disburse the money after we receive it from the ICC,” said Niranjan Shah, secretary, BCCI.

Media gets report

For the first time, the BCCI has published and circulated an abridged copy of its annual report and accounts for the benefit of the media. Titled Indian Cricket – A story of unbridled passion, the 70-page book highlights the BCCI’s activities in the 2006-07 season.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail