Prasad to coach India at U-17 Asia Cup

Former India seamer Venkatesh Prasad has been named coach of the Indian team for the upcoming Under-17 Asia Cup cricket tournament.

A record 21 teams are in fray in the event, to be held at different venues in South India from January 19 to 27.

The Indian team will be led by Andhra's A G Pradeep, while former Test cricketer Sudhakar Rao will be the manager, Prof Ratnakar Shetty, Board of Control for Cricket in India joint secretary announced in Mumbai on Friday.

The tournament will be played on a double-league cum knock-out format.

Seventeen teams, including Malaysia, Afghanistan, Iran and Hong Kong, will fight it out in the first stage where they will be split into groups of four.

The winner from each group will advance to the second league stage, where they will be joined by hosts India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The top two teams of Groups 1 and 2 will play the semi-finals.

Group A: Malaysia, Nepal and Qatar (venue -- Visakhapatnam).

Group B: UAE, Afghanistan, Kuwait and Oman (Hyderabad).

Group C: Singapore, Iran, Thailand and Bahrain, (Bangalore).

Group D: Hong Kong, Bhutan, Saudi Arabia and Maldives (Chennai).

The winners of group A and C will be clubbed with India and Pakistan in Group 1 while those of B and D will play with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in Group 2.

Bangalore and Visakhapatnam will host the Group 1 and 2 matches respectively.

The two semi-finals -- the winner of Group-1 versus runner-up of Group-2 and the winner of Group-2 and runner-up of Group-1 -- on January 25 and the final on Jan 27 will be held at Bangalore.

The Indian team: A G Pradeep (capt), Ravikant Shukla (vice-capt), Uday Kaul, Ali Murtuza, R Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, Bharat Loomba, Umesh Karvi, Prem Prateek, Raviraj Patil, Piyush Chawla, Jagrut Mehta, Nadeem Shabaz and Atish Jena.

Coach: Venkatesh Prasad.

Manager: Sudhakar Rao.

Physio: Muthu Kumar.