The Hindu : No limited-overs tourney for under-17

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 04, 2003

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Sport - Cricket

No limited-overs tourney for under-17

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 3. In a significant move, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that henceforth there would be no limited-overs tournaments for under-17 players. The decision was taken at the end of the two-day Working Committee of the Board here on Thursday.

The recommendation to keep under-17 cricketers away from limited-overs competitions had come from former players, who had shown concern at the decline in the batting standards of the juniors. For long former Test captain Bishan Singh Bedi had advocated such a move to protect talented batsmen from being corrupted by cross-batted strokes and at the recently held conclave of spinners in Kolkata, the participants had strongly recommended that juniors should not be allowed to play limited-overs cricket.

The Board, however, would go ahead with its plans to host the Asia Cup for under-17. "We're committed to conduct the Asia Cup,'' said Board president, Jagmohan Dalmiya.

The Working Committee also ratified the recommendations of captains and coaches of all Ranji Trophy teams to continue with the format that was introduced last season. Ranji Trophy was held on a two-division basis and the Board found overwhelming support for the format from all quarters. The Board also gave its consent to the participation of two foreign teams, in the Duleep Trophy.

The Board, meanwhile, released the itinerary for the visit of New Zealand and the subsequent tri-series with Australia as the third team. New Zealand will play two three-day matches at Rajkot and Vizag, the dates for which were announced, but not the sequence. Similarly, the dates for the two Tests at Kanpur and Mohali were also announced. "We'll soon decide which venue will host the first Test,'' said Mr. Dalmiya.

The itinerary:

New Zealand v Board President's XI and India `A' from September 26 to 28 and October 2 to 4 at Rajkot and Vizag; Test matches from Oct. 8 to 12 and 16 to 20 at Mohali and Kanpur.

Tri-series (all matches featuring India are day-night affairs): Oct. 23: India v New Zealand at Chennai; Oct. 26: India v Australia at Gwalior; Oct. 29: Australia v New Zealand at Faridabad; November 1: India v Australia at Mumbai; Nov. 3: Australia v New Zealand at Pune; Nov. 6: India v New Zealand at Cuttack; Nov. 9: Australia v New Zealand at Guwahati; Nov. 12: India v Australia at Bangalore; Nov. 15: India v New Zealand at Hyderabad; Nov. 18: Final at Kolkata.

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