BCCI contracted players to play for states when free

Mumbai: The BCCI technical committee today said it wants all the contracted players to make themselves available for their respective states when they are not playing international cricket. This was one of the recommendations made by the echnical committee, headed by former captain Sunil Gavaskar, at its meeting at the Cricket Centre here. 'The committee was of the view that the board should talk to its contracted players and ensure that they represent their respective state sides when not playing for India,' BCCI secretary N Srinivasan said in a statement.

The technical committee also recommended the BCCI to revert back to playing all Ranji Trophy matches on a home and away basis as was the case three seasons ago. Over the last two seasons the knock out rounds were held at neutral venues, a practice the Gavaskar-led panel wants to do away with. The committee also recommended that the wickets in the stadia should be under the supervision of BCCI's Pitch and Ground Committee member from the zone concerned. It also approved the format for assessment of pitches for domestic tournaments and recommended a special committee comprising Sunil Gavaskar, Chetan Chauhan, Sourav Ganguly and K Srikkanth to go through the pitch reports of the match referees.

The committee is against the participation of foreign players in domestic tournaments from 2009-10 season onwards. Instead it want only three 'guest' players to be permitted in a state side. It also feels changing of the ball should be made mandatory after 35 overs in one-day games, and the Power Play rules that are in place for international cricket, should be applied to the domestic circuit as well. The committee also expressed concern over the quality of the SG Test balls being used in domestic tournaments.

During the meeting, a Mumbai-based enthusiast made a resentation on a new formula to decide rain-affected limited
overs matches, who was asked to submit a hard copy of the same to the BCCI, one of the members of the committee said. PTI