BCCI confirms Sharjah tournament participation

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has formally written to the Cricketers' Benefit Fund Series, confirming the national squad's participation in the Sharjah cricket tournament in April, also featuring Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

"We confirm the proposed itinerary sent by you and we are pleased to inform you that we will participate in the Coca Cola Cup," BCCI secretary J Y Lele said in a communication to the CBFS, according to Gulf News.

The tournament will now be held from April 8 to 20. The original dates for the tournament were April 4 to 13, but they have been readjusted at India's request.

The original schedule was drawn up a long time ago and was initially acceptable to the BCCI, but when the Indian board realised that the itinerary drawn up for the Australian team's tour of India overlapped with the Sharjah tourney, they requested the CBFS to change the dates, to which the CBFS agreed.

Since Pakistan and Sri Lanka have no engagements at that time, the CBFS deferred the tournament by four days. The Pakistan Cricket Board has sent its approval for the revised dates, followed by the Indian and Lankan boards sending their acceptances on Wednesday.

The newspaper said that for the first time, there would be a gap between each game in the first and second legs of the Sharjah tournament league matches.

However, only India will play back-to-back matches. India play their first round league match against Lanka and then Pakistan the next day in the first match of the return leg.

The revised itinerary has been accepted by India too, CBFS President Qasim Noorani told the newspaper.

He said the BCCI has former Indian skipper Mansoor Ali Khan Patudi, former wicket-keeper Farooq Engineer and Chetan Sharma as beneficiaries. Each of them will receive $35,000.

The CBFS hands over the players benefit fund purse of $1,05,000 each to the Pakistan and Lankan boards. Each board has its own method of distributing funds given by the CBFS. The PCB has named former Test stars Sarfraz Nawaz and Majid Khan as beneficiaries. However, Khan is understood to have declined the offer.

The new schedule for the Sharjah tournament is:
April 8 - Pakistan vs Sri Lanka
April 9 - rest day
April 10 - India vs Sri Lanka
April 11 - rest day
April 12 - India vs Pakistan
April 13 - India vs Sri Lanka
April 14 - rest day
April 15 - India vs Pakistan
April 16 - rest day
April 17 - Pakistan vs Sri Lanka
April 18 and 19 - rest days
April 20 - final.

UNI

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