Board accepts TN Government's land offer for NCA: Lele
The secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) JY Lele said in Mumbai that the Board has accepted the Tamil Nadu Government's allotment of free land for setting up the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Chennai
Natarajan Sriram
12-Sep-2000
The secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) JY
Lele said in Mumbai that the Board has accepted the Tamil Nadu
Government's allotment of free land for setting up the National
Cricket Academy (NCA) in Chennai.
Talking to UNI on Monday, Lele said that apart from the acceptance of
the allotted land for the NCA, the board had rejected the Mumbai
Cricket Association's (MCA) proposal to shift the present headquarters
of the board to the MCA's new building which is yet to come up at the
Wankhede stadium. Lele informed that the MCA had quoted Rs four crores
while Cricket Club of India had proposed a free allotment of space for
a new office in Brabourne stadium.
Turning his attention to the BCCI's new policies for the forthcoming
season, Lele said that the Board is all set to implement the newly
introduced policy of rotation for the allotment of centres for the
Tests and One day internationals beginning with the forthcoming
Zimbabwean tour to India.
Elaborating on the issue, Lele said that the new policy replaces the
existing system of zonal allotment. Hence forth the 22 one day
international and nine Test grounds will get a chance to stage matches
based on a rotation basis.
Reasoning out the change in policy, the Board secretary said that some
of the affiliated associations were reluctant to host a Test for fear
of loss in revenue and opted for a one day international instead. He
added that the existing system of allotment was lop sided since zones
like South which boasts of more Test and one day venues than the other
zones, were allotted more matches than the others.
With India slated to take on Zimbabwe this season at home, Lele's
attention turned to the visitors. He said that board wanted to play
more than two Tests with the visitors, but due to Christmas, the
Zimbabweans wanted to return. Moreover the guarantee money for the
previous Zimbabwe tour to India was paid by the International Cricket
Council (ICC) but from now on both the countries have agreed upon
reciprocal tours without financial benefits, said Lele.
Lele also said that there was no reason for concern regarding India's
participation in the ICC Knock-out tournament in Nairobi and the Coca
Cola Cup in Sharjah later. The government is yet to give clearance to
these tours. Lele reasoned that the nature of the two tours were not
the same as the proposed Indian tour to Pakistan.