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.

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.