BCCI meet to restructure domestic circuit

The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) working committee is to meet in New Delhi on May 19 and going by the recent developments regarding match fixing they seem to have their hands full. One that is sure to be at the top of their agenda is former BCCI president IS Bindra's submission of a 360 page document to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), allegations on the Indian coach Kapil Dev and the subsequent theatrics.

Apart from that, the meeting also proposes to have an appraisal of the meetings the board officials and players had with the International Cricket Council (ICC) president Jagmohan Dalmiya in Calcutta and the Sports Minister SS Dhindsa regarding the recent match-fixing scandal last month.

The working committee meeting has been primarily convened to consider changes in the basic format of the premier domestic tournaments. The tournaments in question being the Ranji Trophy and the Duleep Trophy. The board would also be considering doing away with the Super League stage in the Ranji Trophy. Thus instead of the existing system, it proposes to have two or three teams from each zone qualifying for the knockout stage of the tournament.

The other change in the domestic structure is expected to occur in the Duleep trophy where the league format is to be re-introduced in tournament and it is to be made mandatory for all top players to participate in the tournament.

Moreover, it would be proposed that the Duleep Trophy tournament should not take place at the time of a foreign tour and that it should be played only at good approved centres while one-day matches which were for quite some time being played a day before Ranji zonal league games will be played separately at a stretch over a week in each of the zones. The other changes to be approved in the meeting regarding the domestic tournaments will include starting domestic season from the second week of October.

Next in line would be the consideration of a request by the England Cricket Board (ECB) for an under-19 tour of India in winter 2001 and India's participation in the inaugural Asian Cricket Council under-15 tournament in Malaysia next month.

A contract for players who are called for national duty and introduction of fee linked to performance and the nomination of a medical panel to determine fitness of the players so as to end all the associated controversies that come with it are to be discussed and finalized. It is also expected to bring in medical tests in junior cricket to determine right age.

Last but not the least, the board will also finalise all the envisaged arrangements taken up for the newly established National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. Apart from these the meeting would discuss other routine issues including the construction of BCCI headquarters in Mumbai.