BCCI introduces Inter-Corporate tournament

Mumbai, Jan 3 (PTI) India's Cricket Board Saturday decided to introduce an Inter-Corporate prize money tournament, to be conducted in 50-over and Twenty20 formats, to encourage business houses to recruit cricketers into their fold and improve the players' employment opportunities.

The winners of the proposed Inter-Corporate tournament
would be richer by Rs one crore, the runners-up would get Rs
50 lakh and the losing semi finalists Rs 25 lakh each, as per
a decision taken by the BCCI's all-powerful Working Committee
here Saturday.

BCCI's (Board of Control for Cricket in India) joint
secretary and former member of the national selection panel,
Sanjay Jagdale, was chosen as the chairman of the new
committee formed to oversee the conduct of the Inter-Corporate
tournament.

The other members are: K S Viswanathan, Prof. R S
Shetty, Chamundeshwaranath, Ranjib Biswal and Anirudh
Choudhary, BCCI secretary N Srinivasan said in a press
release.

The Board rubbished reports in the media that sponsors
associated with it have defaulted in or delayed their
payments.

Srinivasan also stated that the BCCI's projected
revenue has taken a hit to the tune of Rs 120 crore because of
cancellation of two ODIs against England (scheduled at
Guwahati and Delhi) and cancellation of the tour to Pakistan
in the wake of the terror attacks in Mumbai.

"The BCCI clarifies that none of the sponsors associated
with it are delinquent in payments. No default has been
committed and BCCI enjoys a healthy relationship with all
sponsors", Srinivasan said.

"The Working Committee noted that there would be a
reduction in revenue in the current year to the effect of
Rs 120 crore, as a result of the cancellation of two ODIs
against England, and the cancellation of India's tour to
Pakistan", he said.

"This includes the loss of revenue arising out of
the postponement of the ICC Champions Trophy 2008 (scheduled
in Pakistan). It is to be noted that while there will be a
decrease in revenue, the BCCI will still have a healthy excess
of Income over Expenditure for the current year," Srinivasan
stated.

The Working Committee also approved the reports of
six sub-committees, including that of the Gradation Committee
which formalised the new list of centrally contracted players.

Former captain and ex-national selection panel head
Dilip Vengsarkar had expressed his surprise at the exclusion
of Mumbai's top leading run-getter and wicket-taker - Ajinkya
Rahane and Dhaval Kulkarni - from the list and had hoped that
the Working Committee would add their names whenever it met.

The Working Committee also approved the reports of its
sub-committees namely Umpires Committee, Finance Committee,
Ground and Pitches Committee, Junior Cricket Committee and
Senior Tournaments Committee.

The Working Committee also decided to conduct specialised
coaching camps for fast bowlers, spinners and batsmen at the
cricket academies of Punjab Cricket Association, Tamil Nadu CA
and Mumbai CA, respectively.

Srinivasan would be the Chairman of the committee formed
to oversee these camps with Jagdale, treasurer M P Pandove,
National Cricket Academy's Director Dav Whatmore, Prof. R S
Shetty and Anurag Thakur as his colleagues on the panel.

"These camps will supplement the activities being
carried out presently at the National Cricket Academy,
Bangalore," Srinivasan said.

It was also decided that the BCCI would encourage
all its affiliated member associations to increase the number
of grounds available for junior cricket, especially the
quality of wickets on which these matches are to be played,
Srinivasan stated. PTI SSR
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