BCCI to heed Kumble

Additional warm-up games during Aussie tour

Kumble’s suggestion came on Monday following widespread criticism of the schedule prepared for the team in the Test series in England that, experts feel, has led to the Indian squad’s disastrous outing.

The Indian squad played a lone first-class game against Somerset before sliding to massive defeats.

At Monday’s Working Committee meeting of the BCCI, Kumble’s suggestion to the Board to pencil in two more first-class games to the one already scheduled ahead of the opening Boxing Day (Dec 26) Test at Melbourne ‘was accepted’, sources said.

“Kumble said if only one first-class game was scheduled, only 11 players would be able to play. He wanted all 16 touring members to have a competitive game before the start of the Test series by having more games. His suggestion has been accepted,” they said.

Sources conceded it would be a tricky task for the Board to try and add one more first-class game in the tune-up to the tour as there was hardly any gap between the conclusion of the home one-day series against the West Indies and the departure of the team to Australia.

The BCCI has also written to Cricket Australia that the first-class game that is already scheduled should not be reduced to a club-level affair as it clashed with the commencement of the country’s Big Bash T20 tournament.

The lone warm-up game is against Cricket Australia Chairman’s XI from December 18-21 at Manuka Oval in Canberra, before the opening contest of the four-match Test series.

The Working Committee also briefly discussed the England debacle before leaving it to president Shashank Manohar and secretary N Srinivasan to devise an action plan.

The BCCI also decided that a former cricketer can now be eligible to be a national selector after five years of retirement instead of the earlier stipulated 10 years.

It is learnt that the meeting was largely devoted to ratifying reports of various committees ahead of the Board’s Annual General Meeting to be held here on September 19 and 20.

The BCCI decided to raise subsidies to state associations from television rights to a maximum of Rs 27 crore.

The Board made a net profit of Rs 163 crore in the last fiscal which does not include income from the International Cricket Council-organised World Cup as it ended on April 2.