PCA floats three new funds

The Punjab Cricket Association on Saturday approved a Rs.1.97 crore budget for the current financial year. The budget was passed by the newly constituted executive committee of the PCA presided over by its President IS Bindra in Chandigarh.

After the meeting, Bindra told mediapersons that the executive committee has decided to float three new funds for the development of the game and welfare of the players. Besides, it has also been decided to give cash awards to the winners of various tournaments to be organised by the PCA.

Bindra said that a Rs. 15 lakh benevolent fund has been created to provide financial help to old players in their hour of need. The amount would be distributed to cricket veterans who are not well off financially. Another fund of Rs. 23.30 lakh has been approved for creating necessary infrastructure at all the district levels for the promotion of the game. He further said that another fund of Rs. 25 lakh has been created to provide coaching and equipment facilities to budding players. This amount would be provided to the district associations as a subsidy, he added. The executive committee also decided to give a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 to the winners of the inter-district Katoch Shield tournament. Besides, a cash prize of Rs. 30,000 would be awarded to the winner of all other age group tournaments.

Bindra announced that all the results and statistics relating to matches to be organised by the PCA would be made available on the internet from this year onward.

The executive committee gave its approval to the setting up of various committees. Chaman Lal Malhotra headed the five member selection committee for seniors. Joginder Singh, Rakesh Rathore, Balbir Singh and RP Singla are the other members of the committee. Umesh Kumar heads the selection committee for juniors with Sanjay Mishra, Suresh Sharma, Satish Kumar and Mohinder Singh as members.

Other committees include tournament and fixtures with SK Kakkar as its chairman, technical cum-coaching centre with Ashwani Kumar Minna as chairman, finance committee with Rajan Kashyap and marketing committee with Rajiv Bali as chairman.