Mumbai: BCCI President Sharad Pawar's uncompromising belief that cricketers who play the game and know the game well would determine cricketing matters was reflected in the repositioning of India's tour of Pakistan after the cancellation of the Asia Cup.

The Indian team will now leave for Lahore on January 6, play a three-day preparatory game and three Tests and five One-Day Internationals. Announcing the revised schedule, Mr. Pawar said: "The BCCI consulted the Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Shaharyar Khan and the Indian players (in Chennai) and rearranged the Pakistan tour schedule.''

The BCCI's Executive-In-Charge, Prof. Ratnakar Shetty, said the previous two tours between India and Pakistan have been `high intensity' events and the players felt that the Asia Cup, squeezed in between the Pakistan and home series against England, would take a heavy toll.

"It was tightly scheduled before. So all of us discussed this, including the players, and the PCB and Indian players are now comfortable with the rearrangement,'' said BCCI vice-president Lalit Kumar Modi.

Welcome break

The Indian team will return from Pakistan on February 20 and rest for a few days before preparing for the home series against England. "It's good to know that the schedule (Pakistan tour) is spaced out,'' said Rahul Dravid.

Describing the first Working Committee as "good,'' Mr. Pawar said that the third Test against Sri Lanka will be played at Ahmedabad. "The Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association confirmed its inability to host the Test as the State Government has not handed over the ground to it,'' said Mr. Pawar.

Mr. Pawar said he had an opportunity to discuss India-Pakistan cricket matters with Shaharyar. "The two Boards have decided to position an annual match between the winner of the Ranji Trophy and Pakistan's Quaid-e-Azam Trophy alternatively in India and Pakistan. It has also been decided that India and Pakistan will play a series once in two years."

The Working Committee also instituted the Cricket Development Committee (DDC) with former India captain Kapil Dev as its Chairman. "This committee will focus on the development of the game at the grassroot level, junior cricket and work on the New Area Development programme of the BCCI,'' said Mr. Pawar.

Shivlal is NCA Director

Sunil Gavaskar was retained as chairman of the National Cricket Academy. Sources said that a suggestion to bring in professional administration evoked a heated argument between two former Presidents, I.S. Bindra and Jagmohan Dalmiya. But Mr. Pawar told The Hindu said that modern systems had to be introduced and he was authorised to select an agency — Tata Consultancy Services or McKenzie's — to recommend to the BCCI the entire gamut of professional management.

Mr. Pawar said the Marketing Committee will get down to business soon to deal with issues like television rights, team sponsorship and the legal committee to handle the 23 cases the BCCI is involved in. He added that the Players' Contract would be finalised before the Indian team's departure to Pakistan.

TV rights issue

The television rights issue is likely to come up in the Delhi High Court soon. The previous committee had informed the court that Zee Telefilms doesn't meet the requirements for production and telecast of international matches in India. In the Invitation to Tender, the BCCI had mentioned that it can cancel the tender process at any time without giving reasons. After the BCCI election, the satellite rights for the Test series against Sri Lanka was awarded to Zee.

When asked why Dalmiya did not figure in any committee, Mr. Pawar said: "He's in the Working Committee.''

Fresh list likely

The BCCI is likely to send a fresh list of venues for the ICC Champions Trophy to be held in India in October 2006.

The BCCI has also decided to reconstitute the Review Committee and study the working of the Talent Resource Development Wing (TRDW). According to sources, majority of the members are keen on scrapping the TRDW, but since the appointment of TRD officers have been made for junior games to be played till February 2006, it has been decided to review the functioning of the TRDW after next February.

The BCCI's junior selection committee will meet in New Delhi on December 11 to select the probables for the Under-19 World Cup to be held in Sri Lanka from February 5 to 19.

The Committees:

Legal Committee: Shashank Manohar and Kapil Sibal (NCA); Sunil Gavaskar (Chairman), Ajay Shirke (Vice-Chairman), Shivlal Yadav (Director), Lalchand Rajput (Coaching Director), Ashok Bhagwat, Sunil Dev and Gopal Bose (members), all BCCI office-bearers (ex-officio members).

Constitution Review Committee: Shashank Manohar (Chairman), I.S. Bindra, N. Srinivasan, Lalit Kumar Modi, Arun Jaitley and Prof. Ratnakar Shetty.

Headquarters Committee: I.S. Bindra, N. Srinivasan, Niranjan Shah and Lalchand Rajput.

Marketing Committee: Sharad Pawar (Chairman), Niranjan Shah, M.P. Pandove, N. Srinivasan (all office-bearers), Chirayu Amin, Dayanand Narvekar, K.P. Kajaria, Lalit Kumar Modi, Shahshank Manohar (all vice-presidents), and A.C. Muthiah, I.S. Bindra and Ranbir Singh Mahendra (all previous BCCI Presidents).

Media Committee: Rajiv Shukla (Chairman), G.S. Walia, K.L. Balaji, Rajan Nair, Milind Rege, Raja Venkat and Niranjan Shah (Convenor).

Ground and Pitch committee: Dhiraj Parsana, Daljit Singh, P.R. Viswanathan, Tapas Chatterjee, Probir Mitra and Niranjan Shah (Convenor).

Disciplinary Committee: Sharad Pawar (Chairman), Shashank Manohar and Chirayu Amin.

Cricket Development Committee: Kapil Dev (Chairman), L. Sivaramakrishnan, D.B. Vengsarkar, Hanumant Singh, Arun Lal and Ravi Shastri.

The schedule:

India in Pakistan (Jan. 6 to Feb. 20, 2006): One three-day warm-up game, three Tests and five ODIs (Lahore, Faisalabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Multan).

England in India (February 25 to April 22): Two warm-up games (Mumbai and Baroda), three Tests (Nagpur, Mumbai and Mohali) and seven ODIs (Indore, Goa, New Delhi, Guwahati, Kochi, Faridabad and Jamshedpur).

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