Sundaram to head pitches committee

Venkat Sundaram, former captain of Delhi, will be the new chairman of the reconstituted Grounds and Wickets Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Jagmohan Dalmiya announced in Kolkata on Wednesday. Dalmiya also said that the committee would meet at Kolkata on August 5 to plan for the upcoming season.

Sundaram was appointed after G Kasturirangan resigned recently on grounds of ill health. Unnamed sources quoted by The Indian Express, however, said that Kasturirangan was "frustrated" by the lackadaisical approach of the BCCI.

Sundaram, a Delhi selector and a qualified umpire, has been closely interacting with the New Zealand Sports Turf Institute.

The other members of the committee are Daljit Singh, Dheeraj Parsana, Anand Shukla and Prabir Mukherjee.