ACF meeting at Kolkata from August 14

Various committees of the Asian Cricket Foundation (AFC) will meet here for three days from August 14 to discuss a number issues pertaining to the development of the game in the Asian region.

The ACF meeting, which was earlier scheduled to be held at Kolkata on July 31 and August one, had been postponed to get adequate time to go through agenda and programme documents of the International Cricket Council's Development Committee which is scheduled to meet in Amsterdam on September 10 and 11.

Giving details of the three-day conclave, AFC Chairman Jagmohan Dalmiya told PTI that the Development Committee will meet on August 14 to discuss the implementation of the development plans for the Asian region.

The committee, chaired by former Sri Lankan captain Duleep Mendis, will also discuss various aspects of the detailed development plan drawn up by ACF and review the work done so far.

Apart from Mendis, Mazhar Khan of United Arab Emirates, Anil Kalavar of Singapore, J Jaykumar Shah of Nepal and T Krishnaswamy of Malaysia are the other members of the Development committee while Dalmiya will be a special invitee.

The ACF chairman said that the screening committee will meet on August 15 to begin the process of finalising the development officers from each of the four Test playing nations in the Asian region.

The screening committee will go through the credentials of all the nominees before finalising the panel of development officers. The screening committee, chaired by Dalmiya, comprises Lt Gen Tauqib Zia, Zakir Syed, Duleep Mendis and Ashraf-ul-Haq.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has nominated four former Test players for the post of development officers. National selectors Ashok Malhotra and Madan Lal, allrounder Roger Binny and left handed batsman W V Raman were the four BCCI nominees.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka had also sent their nominations for the post of Development Officers. While Pakistan has sent a list comprising former skippers Mushtaq Mohammed and Zaheer Abbas and medium pacer Iqbal Sikander, Sri Lanka had recommended former cricketers Roy Dias, Rumesh Ratnayake and Brendon Kuruppu.

Dalmiya said that the technical committee will meet on August 16 to discuss the technical aspects of the programmes. The technical committee comprises Sunil Gavaskar (India), Zaheer Abbas (Pakistan), Asantha De Mel (Sri Lanka) and Gazi Ashraf Hossain (Bangladesh).

Dalmiya said that BCCI secretary J Y Lele has also been invited to discuss certain matters regarding the forthcoming Asian Test Championship.