BCCI to professionalise set-up

The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Sunday took the first step towards professionalising the working of its archaic set-up by deciding to appoint an external agency to provide a suitable recommendation to this effect.

In other sweeping moves to remove cobwebs from its functioning, the BCCI's Working Committee meeting in Mumbai also decided to appoint a legal cell, a cricket development committee headed by former India skipper Kapil Dev, a media committee and a constititution review committee.

Among other important decisions taken was the appointment of former Hyderabad off spinner Shivlal Yadav as Director of the Bangalore-based National Cricket Academy, replacing another former Test cricketer Brijesh Patel, and making former Mumbai and India opener Lalchand Rajput as its chief coach.

The NCA would continue to be headed by cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar, BCCI President Sharad Pawar told a press conference after the meeting.

The Working committee also decided to reconstitute its Marketing Committee with Pawar himself at its helm and has given directions to clear the controversial TV rights issues before the Indian team departs for Pakistan in the first week of January.

In this context, the Working Committee has also authorised Pawar to constitute the legal cell and to take steps to resolve the pending court cases involving the BCCI and the former named Shashank Manohar of Vidarbha and leading Supreme Court lawyer Kapil Sibal as two of the members of the legal committee.

Significantly, former BCCI chief Jagmohan Dalmiya did not figure in any of the sub-committees formed at the Working Committee meeting although he attended it.

Queried on the issue, Pawar, who fought and won a bitter battle for supremacy with the Kolkata businessman and former president of the International Cricket Council, said, "Mr Dalmiya is still a member of the Working Committee and we would like to draw on his vast experience (as cricket administrator)."

The Working Committee decided to finalise the much-awaited new players' contract at the earliest.

"The ground work has been done and it would be done before the Indian team's departure for Pakistan," Pawar said.

Following the inability of Uttar Pradesh Cricket Associatin to conduct the third and final India-Sri Lanka final Test at Kanpur, the Dec 18-22 match had been allotted to the Gujarat association to be held at the Motera stadium in Ahmedabad, Pawar said.

The committee also ratified the decision of its Programmes and Fixtures committee taken yesterday and confirmed that during the February 25-April 22 tour by England, Mumbai, Nagpur and Mohali would host the Test matches.

Indore, Goa, Delh, Guwahati, Kochi, Faridabad and Jamshedpur would host the seven ODIs following the three-Test rubber against England.

The two three-day warm-up games prior to the Test series will be held at the Cricket Club of India in Mumbai and Baroda.

The complete itinerary for the tour would be finalised in a day or two, it was announced.

The Working Committee also discussed the resignation of Dalmiya as the chief of Asian Cricket Council and Afro-Asian Cricket Co-operation on Saturday.

In this connection Pawar said the ACC presidentship would be institutionalised by which the president of the member association whose turn it is to head the Asian body, India at present, would also be heading the ACC. Pawar, thus, would be the new president of the continental body too.

The Working Committee decided that the issue of sponsorship of the Indian team would also be finalised and implemented before the team's visit to Pakistan. The earlier sponsorship deal with Sahara India ended last month.

Pawar said the BCCI headquarters would remain in Mumbai and unveiled a prototype of the new headquarters which is to be housed inside the Mumbai Cricket Association of which he is the President.

The various committees appointed are:

Legal Committee: Shashank Manohar (chairman) and Kapil Sibal (plus one or two more to be decided later).

National Cricket Academy: Sunil Gavaskar (chairman), Ajay Shirke (vice chairman), Shivlal Yadav (director), Lalchand Rajput (coaching director), Ashok Bhagwat, Sunil Dev, Gopal Bose and all BCCI office bearers as ex-officio members.

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

Head Quarters Committee: I S Bindra, N Srinivasan, Niranjan Shah, Lalchand Rajput.

Marketing Committee: Sharad Pawar, all five Vice Presidents (Lalit Modi, Dayanand Narvekar, K P Kajaria, Chirayu Amin, Shashank Manohar), all office bearers (Secretary Niranjan Shah, Joint Secretary M P Pandove and Treasurer N Srinivasan), I S Bindra, A C Muthiah and Ranbir Singh Mahendra.

Media Committee: Rajiv Shukla (Chairman), G S Walia (North Zone), K L Balaji (South), Rajan Nair (Central), Milind Rege (West) and Raja Venkat (East). Convener: Niranjan Shah.

Grounds and Pitches Committee: Dhiraj Parsana (West), Daljit Singh (North), P R Vishwanathan (South), Tapash Chatterjee (Central) and Probir Mitra (East). Convener; Niranjan Shah.

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

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