BCCI drops Cooch Behar Trophy

By Our Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI, OCT. 11. The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Thursday dropped the Cooch Behar (under-19) Trophy for the 2001- 2002 season to give the players more time to prepare for the Junior World Cup, scheduled to be held in New Zealand from January 19 to February 10, 2002.

Terming the original cricket calendar for the juniors as `unworkable', the Board President, Mr. Jagmohan Dalmiya said that the youngsters should be given enough time to prepare for the campaign ahead. India will be defending the title won in Sri Lanka last year.

Originally, the Cooch Behar Trophy was to be played from December 28 to January 10, 2002, leaving mere three days for the team to reach New Zealand. The organisers of the Junior World Cup have informed all participating teams to be in New Zealand by January 13.

There will be 16 teams - 10 Test playing nations, one- day regulars Kenya and five zonal winners - contesting for honours.

``How would you expect our boys to perform well if they are given such a tight schedule and no time to acclimatise with the conditions and also with themselves,'' Mr. Dalmiya told reporters after meeting the members of the senior and as well as junior selection committee here.

``Following a brainstorming session with the selectors, it was decided that the juniors will be sent on a pre- World Cup warm-up tour of Australia and New Zealand,'' Mr. Dalmiya said.

According to the new plan, domestic tournaments for the juniors will be completed by November 4 with the selectors naming 25 probables for the pre-World Cup camp. The players will be selected based on their performance in the C.K. Nayudu Trophy with zonal academies and `spotters' suggesting the selection committee about the probables.

``We will appoint people to spot the talent and also the coaches of respective teams will be involved in the process of identifying the players,'' said Mr. Dalmiya. Coach of one particular team will be asked to suggest name of good players from the opposition team. ``This will help us in reducing the list to minimum,'' he added.

The probables will attend the camp in Bangalore from December 8 to 22 before the final team departs for Australia on December 28.

With Roger Binny vacating his post of junior national coach, the Selection Committee has also been asked to identify a new man for the job. Also, the juniors will now have a physical trainer like the senior team.

Addressing the problems faced by the juniors regarding the difference in the quality of ball they use here and the ones used in the tournaments abroad, Mr. Dalmiya said that standard balls would be provided for the C.K. Nayudu Trophy and the subsequent camp.

The National Selection Committee, headed by Chandu Borde, also had a session with the Board President and discussed the plan to build the team for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. ``They have given several suggestions and we will discuss them in future meetings,'' said Mr. Dalmiya.

Refuting the reports in a section of the media, the BCCI President said that there had been no proposal to fix salaries for the members of the Selection Committee. ``We had no such topic on the agenda,'' Mr. Dalmiya said.

Regarding England's tour of India later this year, Mr. Dalmiya said that as of now the tour was on. ``The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has told us that they were absolutely ready to go ahead with the tour,'' Mr Dalmiya said.

The ECB chief, Mr. Tim Lamb, is due for a meeting later this week to finalise the logistics of travel and hotel stay for the English team's tour of India.

Mr. Dalmiya categorically stated that there was no proposal to shift or change any venue and the agreed itinerary of the England tour of India remained same. He was reacting to the reports that England had been insisting that the two Test venues, Mohali and Kanpur, be changed for various reasons.

However, Mr. Dalmiya revealed that the only change likely to come about in the itinerary concerned the date of the one-day international scheduled for January 26 in Kolkata.

With the Eden Garden, the venue, just opposite the road where the Republic Day parade is conducted, Kolkata police has said that no movement would be allowed on that day. ``Venue will remain the same, only dates will be changed,'' Mr. Dalmiya said.

On Kapil Dev showing renewed interest in cricket, Mr. Dalmiya said if he wanted to come back to the cricketing fold, he was welcome. ``Kapil Dev is an icon. He went into self-imposed exile and if he wants to come back, he is welcome,'' Mr. Dalmiya said. But nothing has been worked out since he had not spoken to Kapil Dev after the legendary all-rounder made a surprise visit to the Ferozeshah Kotla ground to help seamer Ashish Nehra.

Expressing delight at India's win against South Africa on Wednesday, Mr. Dalmiya tried to play down his telephonic interaction with coach John Wright and physical trainer Andrew Leipus. After India lost the first match, Mr. Dalmiya had dashed a letter to both of them and later spoke to the duo on phone.

Mr. Dalmiya admitted that he did write a letter wanting to know what went wrong. ``Also, I have asked them to send me a brief report on how they perceive the team should go about and what extra steps they were planning to take to improve the performance,'' Mr. Dalmiya said. He, however, added that he had not set any time frame for them to send the report. ``They should be concentrating more on winning the matches,'' he added. The Board President also said that there was no plan, as of now, to remove Wright and Leipus.

On Jadeja being involved in a controversy of having played some exhibition matches in the United States and the International Cricket Council (ICC) subsequently asking the Board what action it was contemplating, Mr. Dalmiya said that the matter was out of the Board's jurisdiction. Jadeja has been banned for two years from playing any kind of cricket.

Mr. Dalmiya said that since Jadeja played the matches in the US, it was for the ICC to take action it deemed fit. He said he had already responded to the ICC's letter and that the Board would not take any further action against Jadeja.

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