Itinerary for South African tour finalised

The Board of Control for Cricket in India, at its working committee meeting in Chennai on Sunday, finalised the itinerary for the South African tour of India in Febrary-March next year.

Mumbai and Bangalore will be the venues for the two Test matches while Baroda, Nagpur, Jamshedpur, Ahmedabad and Goa (or Kochi) will host the five one day internationals.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, JY Lele, secretary, BCCI said the first Test will be played at Mumbai from Feb 24 to 28 while the second Test will be played at Bangalore from March 1 to 5.

The dates for the five ODI's are March 9, 11, 14, 17 and 20. Lele said that while the dates were fixed, which venues would host which games would be decided after taking into account the logistics of air travel and convenience of the players.

Lele said the Fatoda stadium in Goa had been provisionally selected as the venue for one of the ODI's. The BCCI's pitch and ground committee would however inspect the venue for football matches are also held there. If they find the venue suitable, then Goa would hold the match. If the pitch committee gave an unfavourable report, then Kochi would stage the game, he said.

The South Africans would open their tour of India with a three day game against the Board President's XI at the CCI, Mumbai on February 19.

On the BCCI's proposed Cricket Academy at Bangalore, Lele said it would start functioning from May 1. He said the committee formed by the Board to go into details of the Academy, had submitted its preliminary report which was approved by the working committee. A detailed report into the modus operandi of the Academy would be given to the Board by February 1. Lele said plans also included five zonal academies and the total budget is around Rs four crore.

The BCCI was also looking into how similar academies are run in Australia and South Africa. BCCI president AC Muthiah, who was also present at the press briefing, added that Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar, who are presently in Australia would visit the Australian Academy in Adelaide and send a report to the Board.

Lele said that the BCCI would celebrate the ICC's `Cricket Week' from April 2 to 9. This programme is the brainchild of the ICC chairman Jagmohan Dalmiya wherein all ICC members would celebrate `Cricket Week' throughout the year. The secretary said details on how to observe the programme are being worked out.

On the criticism against the facilities at Hyderabad during the ODI against New Zealand last month, Lele said the report had been received and it had been brought to the notice of the Hyderabad Cricket Association and he hoped they would improve on the facilities.

On the possibility of Nayan Mongia being sent back from Australia, Lele said the Board was still awaiting the medical report on MSK Prasad's injury and the matter would be sorted out over the next three or four days. He also said that the Indian team for the Carlton and United series of one day matches, involving Pakistan and Australia, would be selected at the end of the second Test match between India and Australia, which concludes at Melbourne on December 30.