India's tour of South Africa finalised

India will tour South Africa for three Tests and five ODIs in November this year. This was decided by the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) Tours Programmes and Fixtures Committee. India will also play a four-day warm-up game.

The committee also finalised the tri-series in August between India, South Africa and hosts Sri Lanka, after meeting with officials from the respective cricket boards. Niranjan Shah, the BCCI secretary, also announced the forthcoming reciprocal tours featuring the A sides of India and South Africa.

"South Africa A will play in the Duleep Trophy in the coming season besides playing five one-dayers against their Indian counterparts," Shah told The Hindustan Times. "As a reciprocal visit, India A will tour South Africa in March-April 2007 for three `Tests' and five one-dayers."

It was also announced that the India Under-19 team will tour Pakistan in September this year for two four-day games and three one-dayers.

Indian domestic cricket is set get a facelift this season, with coloured clothing and floodlights wherever possible for the Ranji Trophy one-day tournament, similar to the Deodhar Trophy last season, Shah announced. Shah added that a detailed itinerary of the domestic season will be released in due course and that the Under-17 tournament will be played under the Elite and Plate formats as in the Ranji Trophy.

In an effort to increase the representation of Indian umpires at the international level, the committee formed a three-member panel comprising former Test umpires S Venkataraghavan, SK Bansal and VK Ramaswamy to recommend six umpires from a group of eight to the ICC and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) panels. A rating system was also introduced for the umpires where a set of 40 match referees will be provided live feeds of domestic matches to evaluate the umpires. The reports sent by the two captains and the match referee at the end of every match will also be taken into account in the overall rating. The committee also recommended that umpires take fresh written tests and prove themselves, including the top 13 domestic umpires. They will also benefit from lectures by ICC panel umpires.

Aug 10 Arrival in Colombo
Aug 13 Warm-up match - Kurunegala
Aug 14 Sri Lanka v South Africa - Dambulla (d/n)
Aug 16 Sri Lanka v India - Dambulla (d/n)
Aug 18 India v South Africa - Dambulla (d/n)
Aug 20 Sri Lanka v South Africa - Dambulla (d/n)
Aug 23 Sri Lanka v India - Colombo (d/n) - R Premadasa Stadium
Aug 26 India v South Africa - Colombo(d/n) - R Premadasa Stadium
Aug 29 Final - Colombo(d/n) - R Premadasa Stadium

Nov 14 Arrival in Johannesburg
Nov 16 Tour match - Benoni (d/n)
Nov 19 1st ODI - Centurion
Nov 22 2nd ODI - Durban (d/n)
Nov 26 3rd ODI - Cape Town
Nov 29 4th ODI - Port Elizabeth (d/n)
Dec 3 5th ODI - Johannesburg
Dec 7-10 Tour match - Potchefstroom
Dec 15-19 1st Test - Johannesburg
Dec 26-30 2nd Test - Durban
Jan 2-6 3rd Test - Cape Town