The BCCI’s Technical Committee has arrived at a consensus to identify good venues for the Ranji Trophy knockout stage (quarterfinals, semifinals and final) from the 2013-14 season.
“I think everybody (in the committee) was receptive to the suggestions made at the captain and coaches’ conclave. More than the neutral venues (for the Ranji Trophy knockout) the idea is to identify a list of venues.
“We may not have much of international cricket in India in the coming (2013-14) season. So the identified venues will be the norm rather than neutral venues,” said Anil Kumble, chairman of the committee.
Kumble explained that Friday’s meeting was basically to get to understand each other and the suggestions made at the captain and coaches conclave.
“This was the first meeting of the new Technical Committee and hence it was a preliminary meeting. There was no pressure on us to take decisions. We discussed the outcome of the conclave. We will meet again in April and recommend what needs to be done to the BCCI.”
The former India captain who is also the Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee said that the Technical committee felt that a break of three-days between matches is good enough during the initial stage (of the Ranji Trophy league).
“But we will certainly look at a four-day break for the latter part of the league. We also discussed the weather aspect in the various parts of India.
“We will ask the programmes and fixtures committee to look at all these aspects before drawing up the schedule. But the outcome of the conclave will be discussed in detail at the next Technical Committee meeting,” said Kumble.
He also expressed happiness at India’s impressive display in the ongoing Test series against Australia. “It will be a great if we win the series 4-0. Forget Australia, to win any series 4-0 would be something very special.
“India has an opportunity to achieve that. It is great to see everyone doing really well at the moment. I am looking forward to a 4-0 victory.
“Shikhar (Dhawan) played brilliantly. It is unfortunate that he is not playing in this game at his hometown. I really watched that innings of 187 (at Mohali).
“It was fantastic; to go out there and just play the way he did in his first game was impressive and it really augurs well. There are some tough tours coming up, so this confidence will certainly help the youngsters.’’
The chairman of the national selection committee Sandeep Patil was in New Delhi.
Anil Kumble (Chairman), Vinay Lamba, (North), M. S. K. Prasad (South), Deep Dasgupta (East), Shashikant Khandkar (Central), Mahendra Rajdev (West), Debasis Mohanthy (former Test cricketer), V.K. Ramaswamy (former Test umpire), Sanjay Jagdale (Secretary, BCCI, Convenor) and Prof. Ratnakar Shetty (General Manager - Game Development, BCCI) attended the meeting.
