Former greats to select teams for Dhaka match

By Our Special Correspondent

CALCUTTA, FEB. 5.A clutch of former cricketers, appointed by the International Cricket Council (ICC), are to meet either in New Delhi or London in early March to select the team members of the day-night one- day match between the Asia XI and the Rest of the World XI to be played at Dhaka's National Stadium on April 8.

Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya, the ICC president, informed a press conference here on Saturday that the match would be one of the main features of the `Cricket Week' to be celebrated all over the world from April 2 to 9. The Asia XI would comprise the best cricketers from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka while the Rest would consists of the cream from Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies and Zimbabwe.

The ICC president said the selection proceedings would be telecast during the Cricket Week so that the audiences were able to peep into the minds of the selectors and to know the basis of selection.

He stated that as a part of ICC's ``Fast Track'' programme for the best associate member-nations, a six team event would be staged in Harare where Denmark, Holland, Scotland, Ireland and Kenya would be joined by Zimbabwe A in a 15-match series.

The ICC took up a number of programme for development and globalisation of the game. As a part of its efforts to popularise and spread the game, the ICC was launching the first edition of Cricket Week.

Mr. Dalmiya said ``cricket is already played in nearly 100 countries around the world. From Test playing giants to tiny specks of islands in the pacific, millions enjoy the game. Yet, we wish to promote awareness throughout the world. Cricket week will add to those numbers as the ICC makes a positive effort to ensure that the game is known from Jamaica to Japan and from Headingley to Cape Horn.'' Cricket week would feature a number of cricket programmes all over the world which would be a combination of live events and large scale television programming, so as to spread awareness.

He said the ICC had decided to appoint former reputed cricketers as ``cricket ambassadors''. The appointed ones would visit various countries to assist the ICC in its development programme through their expertise and vast knowledge of the game. ``We feel that it is time to put together a full-fledged festival of cricket and make it available to maximum possible worldwide audience and this is why we are going for an extensive television programming that will be telecast during the Cricket Week,'' Mr. Dalmiya said.

There would be about 30 hours of television programming which besides the special match, would consist of: (a) the spirit of cricket, a documentary on the history of cricket aimed at whetting the appetite of viewers with inspirational stories illustrating the power of cricket to change lives; (b) cricket classics, a programme on the finest matches and moments of the last century; (c) cricket sportraits, profiling of some of the finest cricketers of modern era; (d) cricket quiz in one-day cricket format with teams from 12 World Cup Nations; (e) cricket around the world, a look at cricket as it is played in each of the five major regions namely, Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australasia; (f) stars of the future, a programme which will look at tomorrow's great cricketing names and (g) selecting the best, the ICC will select two teams (i) a present one-day international World XI and (ii) a World XI comprising the best World Cuppers since 1975. The entire programming would be done by Trans World International which was also assisting the ICC in the overall marketing of the event, added Mr. Dalmiya.

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