Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The domestic captains conclave held here on Friday has thrown up more questions than answers. While the new Ranji Trophy format received unanimous support from all quarters, some age-old problems continued to dog the array of cricketers — past, present and promising — who had gathered here either in the capacity of a captain or a coach.
The pitches continued to be a cause of concern with the likes of Karnataka captain Venkatesh Prasad and Madhya Pradesh’s Amay Khurasia coming down heavily on the quality of tracks that were on offer in the Plate Division.
The new Duleep Trophy format came in for criticism with Andhra, Assam, Baroda, Bengal, MP, Mumbai, Orissa, Rajasthan and Tripura stating that the earlier zonal system was better. The present format which culled players from the Ranji Elite and Plate Divisons to form five teams was frowned upon.
|
The positive trends
|
||
|
• Unanimous approval to the new Ranji format The debatable issues |
||
The chairman of the BCCI technical committee and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar suggested the inclusion of a foreign team. A final presentation will be made by Gavaskar, incorporating the views expressed today, to the BCCI working committee. The working committee, which will meet at the end of this month, is the final authority in deciding the implementation of all recommendations and changes to the domestic structure.
The standards of umpiring too was a hotly debated issue which led to the chairman of the BCCI technical committee and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar proposing a meeting between all the Ranji captains and the 40-odd umpires of the all-India panel. It was pointed out that the captain’s daily report on the umpires held no significance as there have been instances where the match referees have blatantly revealed the content of the report to the umpires.
But the most tricky issue which the BCCI will have to grapple with in future was put forth by the Maharashtra representative Nikki Saldanha involving the transfer of players. The present rule allows the weaker teams to import two professionals. Since the Elite players are better placed than the Plate teams, there are already rumours of players opting to switch divisions.
Another area of concern was the scheduling of the domestic calender. Dalmiya assured that it will be addressed when the Tours and Fixtures Committee meets here on Saturday to finalise the New Zealand tour programme.
BCCI had sent a questionnaire to all the state units seeking answers to various suggestions. The proposal to hold one-dayers under lights and with coloured clothing received a positive response from all units. Baroda even went to the extent of suggesting to playing the tournaments with Kookaburra balls, which are widely used in international tournaments.
Dalmiya revealed that 26 per cent of the BCCI revenues will go towards the players fees and prize money of which 13 per cent will go the international players, 10 per cent to the domestic players and three per cent for the junior grade players. Since the Board’s revenue last season was slated to be Rs 24 crore (approx), Rs 6.24 crore will be given to the players. It means that the players donning India colours will share Rs 3.12 crore while the domestic players will take home Rs 2.40 cr. The junior players will share 72 lakhs.
Both Dalmiya and Gavaskar appreciated the feedback they received from the gathering which included the likes of former India captain Bishen Singh Bedi, Venkatapathy Raju, Arshad Ayub, Paras Mhambrey and Amey Khurasia.
