Board promises Kapil all help in improving stadia, pitches
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has assured Kapil Dev that whatever decision the cricketing legend takes in connection with the improvement of the country's cricket stadia and pitches will be fully implemented.
Only after this assurance was given, BCCI secretary Jayant Lele disclosed on Thursday, did the reluctant Kapil accept the office of director of grounds and wickets.
When he was offered the assignment, Kapil bluntly told BCCI officials
that assigning technical roles to former cricketers was an eyewash. Their decisions were inevitably shelved because of cricket politics.
"After the Indore fiasco," Lele said, "it will
not be the case. I have already sent circulars
to all state units asking then to offer Kapil
and his team all assistance they need for check-up of the stadium facilities and pitch."
The Board has warned the state units that any negative report by Kapil and any slackening in the implementation of his proposals thereafter will compel
the BCCI to withdraw the guilty association's international status.
Kapil will finish his survey of venues where the Australian team is
scheduled to play and present his findings to the technical
meeting at Delhi on Tuesday, January 27. Only then will the Board announce the revised
tour schedule. Dhiraj Parsana, Daljit Singh, Vinod
Mathur and Kasturi Rangan will be part of Kapil's team.
Board president Raj Singh Dungarpur has announced a cash prize
of Rs 1 million for the Indian team which won the Independence Cup
in Dhaka on Sunday. The prize will be shared equally by the 14 players, which
means they will get roughly Rs 72,000 each.
The Board has appointed Rajasthan opener Gagan Khoda to lead the
India 'A' team on its 46-day tour to Pakistan from
February 1. The tour will consist of three four-day 'Tests', three
one-dayers and three three-day matches. Leg-spinner Sairaj Bahutule will be the vice-captain.
The team has two Test players in all-rounder Noel David and
medium pacer Debashish Mohanty. Bahutule has played a couple of
one-day internationals.
The 15-member team includes four Bombay players -- Bahutule,
all-rounder Ajit Agarkar, opening batsman Wasim Jaffer and left
hander Jatin Paranjpe who has hit four first class tons this season.
The team also has Rohan Gavaskar, the Bengal left hander with the famous surname, who will wear India 'A' colours for the first time.
Ratinder Sodhi, the man who led India to the under-16 world title, may miss the tour if he is found unfit. The Punjab lad has suffered an injury in the ongoing World Junior Cup in South Africa. Madhya Pradesh all-rounder J P Yadav will replace Sodhi, if he has not recovered from the injury.
Other members of the team: M S Prasad (wicketkeeper, Andhra Pradesh),
Nikhil Haldipur (Bengal), M Madhukar and Abbas Ali (both MP), Sanjay Raul
(Orissa) and Murli Kartik (Railways).
Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid was named the Pantaloon
Indian Cricketer of the Year in Bombay on Wednesday night.
One hundred and twenty one former and current Indian cricketers -- including nine based overseas -- preferred the stylish Bangalore boy over a field consisting of Mohammad Azharuddin, Saurav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and
Sachin Tendulkar. The period in consideration: August 1996 to July 1997.
Out of the 121 votes received, Dravid
won an incredible 62 votes to win the prize and a Tag Heuer
jewellery watch worth Rs 500,000. The award was presented to him
by Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev at a ceremony which also honoured
Lala Amarnath, Vijay Hazare, S Mushtaq Ali and C S Nayudu with
Rs 25,000 each. K N Prabhu, the doyen of Indian cricket journalists,
was awarded Rs 15,000 for his contribution to the game.
UNI
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