No one-dayers till Under-17 level

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced a halt to one-day matches for junior teams till the Under-17 level, after a panel of prominent spinners recommended it to promote the growth of spin bowling.

The panel, which met last month in Kolkata, identified a surfeit of limited-overs games as critical in the decay of spin. The BCCI Working Committee, on the final day of its two-day meeting in Delhi, has also adopted the two other recommendations of the spinners' panel - regular zonal-level workshops for spinners and training programs conducted for youngsters by past spin greats.

Board president Jagmohan Dalmiya did clarify to the press, however, that India would take part in the Under-17 Asia Cup, a one-day tournament, later this year. "We are to host that tournament and as such we cannot go back on our commitment. But after the tournament we intend to approach the Asian Cricket Council to request that henceforth the Asia Cup be made a two-day event," Dalmiya was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India (PTI).

Another decision made on Thursday involved inviting up to two foreign teams to participate in the Duleep Trophy, along the lines of the West Indian Busta Cup. "These teams will not be national teams but something like county sides from England or teams playing in the Busta Cup in the West Indies, which are of the same standard as our domestic sides," said Dalmiya.

The Working Committee also sent certain recommendations, made by Ranji captains and coaches to improve the standrads of domestic cricket, to the Technical Committee for consideration. The coaches and captains had, said Dalmiya, professed themselves satisfied with the split-level format of the Ranji Trophy, in which teams were slotted into either the Elite or the Plate group.