Indian board to appeal Ganguly's ban

The Indian board has decided to appeal against the six-match ban handed to Sourav Ganguly for slow over-rates during India's one-day series against Pakistan. Talking to reporters at the end of the board's two-day working committee meeting in Thiruvananthapuram, Ranbir Singh Mahendra, the BCCI president, also announced that India would bid for the 2011 World Cup, and that a fresh bidding process would be initiated for the right to telecast matches in India.

"We have written to the ICC that the six-match ban is too much," Mahendra said, referring to the punishment imposed on Ganguly by Chris Broad, the match referee. "The decision is not in tune with the terms of the ICC rules. We are taking this up with the ICC." The BCCI has already lost one appeal in the matter, when Michael Beloff QC, the ICC appeals commissioner, ruled that the ban was justified.

Talking about the 2011 World Cup, he suggested that India would put in a bid, though it wasn't yet decided if it would offer a joint bid or seek to host it alone. "We have plenty of time to decide these things. But we are serious about holding the 2011 World Cup." Australia and New Zealand are also planning on a joint bid.

Meanwhile, the board has also decided that the six-man panel which selected India's new coach will now form a new panel called the interactive committee. According to Rajeev Shukla, the BCCI vice president, the six men - Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, S Venkataraghavan, Jagmohan Dalmiya, Mahendra and SK Nair- would "act as a buffer between the selectors and the coach", The Indian Express reported.

Among the other announcements made after the two-day meeting were: