Mumbai, June 7: The Technical Committee of the Indian Cricket Board, headed by Sourav Ganguly, will meet here on June 12 to discuss topics pertaining to domestic cricket, according to BCCI sources.
“The meeting has been convened to discuss domestic cricket,” the sources told PTI.
In the last Working Committee meeting of the Board a three-member special committee was formed to look into the suggestions made by the Technical Committee and the captains and coaches after the one-day conclave here on March 22.
The special panel comprises BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale and former captains Ganguly and Anil Kumble.
Suggestions varying from home-and-away ties, playing on uncovered wickets to widening the gap between two games and a league format for Duleep Trophy, were put forward at the annual Ranji Trophy captains’ and coaches’ conclave organised by the BCCI here today.
The issue of having uncovered wickets to make it more challenging for the domestic batsmen in order to tune them up for tougher challenges occupied the maximum time during the discussions.
The home-and-away format for Ranji Trophy was suggested as currently the team that fails to qualify for the knockout round remains idle for a long period after playing 6-7 games.
“In the same season, it would be better if, for example, Kerala take on Tamil Nadu at home and then go away to the latter’s territory and play the return leg.
“Each team would be assured of more number of games,” one captain, who attended the meeting, had said after the conclave held at a suburban hotel here three months ago.
There were also suggestions to use Kookaburra balls in Duleep Trophy and to give a four-day gap between two Ranji games by increasing the existing three-day gap.
Former India cricketer WV Raman, who attended the meeting as the coach of Bengal, had said the meeting was “extremely interesting with a variety of options (to improve domestic cricket) coming through”.
“This meeting has taken place after 3-4 years. It was very encouraging to see the BCCI’s president (N Srinivasan), secretary (Sanjay Jagdale) and CAO (Prof Ratnakar Shetty) taking so much interest in the discussions,” the former left-handed batsman had said.
Raman had suggested a total change in the points format for Ranji Trophy in order to encourage teams to go for an outright victory instead of being content with taking the first-innings lead and points.
“My suggestion was to encourage the captains to go for an outright result by offering three points extra for attempting an outright victory after taking the lead, even if it ended on the losing side,” Raman had elaborated.
Raman had suggested a steep increase in the points awarded for an outright victory.
“I suggested seven points for an outright victory plus the existing bonus (if it is by an innings or by ten wickets).
“If the team loses in attempting an outright win after taking the lead, then the rivals can be given four points and the losers three,” Raman had said.
The BCCI technical committee, at its meeting here on February 17, had suggested the following points system.
Outright win: 5 points; First innings lead but no outright win: 3 points; Loss on first innings: 1 point; Washout/weather interference with no first innings result: 1 point each; Innings win/win by ten wickets: 1 bonus point; Tie on first innings without outright result: 1 point each; Tie on both innings: 2 points each; Outright loss: No points; First innings results not achieved without any weather interference: 1 point each.
The committee also suggested that if a result on first innings is not obtained at the end of the scheduled play in a knockout match, then the match will be extended into an additional day.
If the first innings are not completed even on the additional day, then the winner will be decided by the spin of a coin, the technical committee had suggested.
Raman had also suggested that bowling of three bouncers per over, from the existing two, be allowed in first-class cricket.
“The technical committee has decided to allow one extra bouncer from the existing one per over in limited-overs games. I suggested three bouncers per over in first class games to help our cricketers improve their technique against short-pitched balls,” Raman had said after the conclave.
The decision of the technical committee to make knockout games in Ranji Trophy five-day affairs, on par with the final, had been welcomed by the captains and coaches, it was learnt.
The Ranji Trophy quarter-finals and semi-finals will now be five-day affairs, the technical committee had decided at its meeting here on February 17.
There was support to the suggestion to play domestic cricket on uncovered wickets, according to Raman.
“It found favour and the consensus was that a good thought needs to be given to this suggestion (by the BCCI),” he had said.
“It’s up to the BCCI to sift through these suggestions. Probably they have to be taken up by the technical committee and then by the working committee. But there’s enough time as the next season is still some way away,” the former opener had concluded.
All these points are expected to be discussed at the meeting of the Technical panel here on June 12. (PTI)

Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, June 7: After holding the ongoing 3rd Prof Pran Nath Memorial Cricket Tournament and Under-14 Boys Cricket Tourney successfully, the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA), Jammu wing, is going to hold screening cum coaching camp for senior and junior women cricketers from June 11 at GGM Science College Hostel ground, here.
According to a handout issued here, Hardev Singh Jamwal, Joint Secretary JKCA, Jammu wing, has directed the girls interested to take part in the camp to report to Roopali Slathia, Level II coach of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) at the aforementioned venue on June 11 at 4 pm sharp.

Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, June 7: After completing 5-days trek of 30 kilometers at Bhandal Valley in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh, 17 students of KC Public School Jammu returned from the tour, here today.
The trek was organized under the auspices of International Award for Young People (IAYP) of which KC Public School is an active member, while it was planned to fulfill the adventure requirement for the bronze award under the IAYP scheme.
During the trek, after reaching to Salooni in Chamba on June 2, the trekkers covered a distance of 13 kilometers to village Kihar, located on the bank of river Siul. The students then trekked a distance of 6 kilometers and interacted with the people there, while the last leg of 15 kilometers took them to Langera Glacier at an altitude of about 8500 feet.
The 17 trekkers included Manthan Mittal, Nikhil Shalia, Utkarsh Gupta, Shravan Choudhary, Himanshu Gupta, Geet Gupta, Anirudh Vaid, Ayush Sharma, Animesh Sharma, Haren Churungoo, Rahul Razdan, Hamza Munir, Akarshan Rehan, Ayush Bhat, Yatharth Kesar, Archit Gupta and Mohit Goswami.
School Principal, Dr PG Thakur, PGT Math, Ashok Khajuria and Science Lab Coordinator, Ajay Thappa accompanied the group as leaders.

New Delhi, June 7 Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal notched up a straight-game victory over Chinese Li Han to advance to the quarterfinals of Thailand Grand Prix Gold in Bangkok today.
The World number five Indian rode on her smashes to see off Lan 21-17 21-13 in a 42-minute women’s singles match at the CU Sport Complex.
The 22-year-old from Hyderabad will next take on the winner of the match between Japan’s Kaori Imabeppu and eighth seed Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand.
Top seed Saina took time to get off the mark and was forced to do the catch-up act most of the time during the first game.
The Indian levelled the score at 12-12 and waged a grim battle till 17-17, before reeling off four straight points to pocket the first game and lead the match 1-0.
In the second game too, Lan put up a fight in the initial moments but Saina was too good for her as she widened the gap from 7-7 to eventually seal the issue comfortably.
The other Indian in the women’s singles competition, P V Sindhu, however, lost to former World Champion Wang Lin 12-21 23-25 in 36 minutes.
In the men’s doubles competition, Sanjeeth S and Jagadish Yadav lost 12-21 6-21 to Calvin Jia Hong Ong and Wee Gleen Tan of Malaysia.
Another Indian pair of Tarun Kona and Arun Vishnu also bowed out with a 22-24 13-21 defeat to sixth seeds Ricky Karanda Suwardi and Muhammad Ulinnuha of Indonesia.
India’s women’s doubles pair of Pradnya Gadre and Prajakta Sawant also crashed out with a 19-21 12-21 defeat to the Malaysian combo of Amelia Alicia Anscelly and Fie Cho Soong in a 27-minute match.
Up against the top seeds Xia Huan and Jinhua Tang of China, the Indian pair of Aparna Balan and Siki Reddy N lost 10-21 13-21 in 24 minutes. (PTI)

GURGAON, June 7:Manav Jaini and Kunal Bhasin were sharing the lead after round three of the PGTI Players Championship with identical totals of 10-under-206, here today.
Manav fired a solid one-under-71 on Thursday to stay in the hunt for the title. Jaini knocked down a 30-feet putt for birdie on the eighth.
He then picked up another stroke on the 16th where his second shot from 145 yards landed just eight feet from the flag. But he bogeyed the 17th to end the day with a 71 at the Golden Greens Golf & Country Club.
Bhasin, who was overnight tied sixth, shot a five under-67. He moved up the leaderboard with birdies on the second and eighth that came as a result of a couple of brilliant approach shots.
A misdirected tee-shot led to a double-bogey for Bhasin on the ninth. The 33-year-old Mumbai-based professional then had a fantastic run of five birdies on the back-nine thanks to his superb putting.
Bhasin sank birdie putts from a range of 18 to 20 feet on the 11th and 16th respectively and converted a 10-footer for birdie on the 13th. He narrowly missed out on sinking an 18-feet eagle putt on the 14th. He chipped it within a foot of the pin for birdie on the 18th to end up with a five-under-67 on day three.
“My iron-play was good on the front-nine while putting was outstanding on the back-nine. The putter had gone cold in the second round but now it’s back in business. I don’t have a score in mind for the final round but I’ll try to give myself as many birdie chances as possible,” Bhasin, a winner on the PGTI in 2009, said. (PTI)

London, June 7 Test skipper Andrew Strauss backed explosive batsman Kevin Pietersen’s decision to bid adieu to one-day cricket for England.
‘I truly believe everyone has the right to determine whether they want to play a certain form of the game,’ Strauss said yesterday.
‘Kevin has made that decision and we all respect it. He went into it with his eyes open. He knew what the situation was and what the ramifications were, and we’re all just looking forward now,’ he added.
The hard-hitting Pietersen is featuring in the ongoing third Test against the West Indies starting today, a week after giving up limited overs cricket citing the intensity of the schedule and the physical demands on him.
Strauss (35), who is three years older than Pietersen also quit the shorter format after the ICC World Cup 2011 admitted that one must be mentally prepared to quit a certain format.
‘You have got to be ready to do it. The most important thing is that mentally you understand that you’re giving away a certain part of the game. (UNI)

3rd Prof Pran Nath Malhotra Memorial Cricket

Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, June 7: Splendid performances from left-arm spinner Rompy Sharma and left-handed batsman Radheyshyam helped Kathua XI to thrash Reasi XI by a big margin of 95 runs to enter the semi-finals of the ongoing 3rd Prof Pran Nath Malhotra Memorial One-Day Cricket Tournament, being organised by Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association at GGM Science College Hostel ground, here.
Earlier, winning the toss and electing to bat first, Kathua XI scored a decent total of 225 runs in 45.2 overs. Radheyshyam played a superb innings of 59 runs off 81 balls, which included 8 boundaries, while Vishu and Himanshu contributed 29 and 25 runs to the total respectively. For Reasi XI, Shivam scalped 3 wickets, while Nadeem and Ram Singh claimed 2 wickeets each. Sarfaraz also picked one wicket.
In reply, left-arm spinner Rompy Sharma plotted collapse of Reasi XI by taking 5 important wickets in his 9.1 overs, conceding 24 runs only, while Kaka bagged 2 wickets and Arvind claimed one. Sarfaraz played a power-packed innings of 45 runs in 35 balls with the help of 9 boundaries, while Shivam contributed 30 runs to the modest total. Ankush also chipped in 10 runs.
The match was officiated by Sadiq Hussain Malik and Mohan Lal as umpires, while Ajay Sharma maintained the scoreboard.

Excelsior Sports Correspondent
SAMBA, June 7: Organised by the Department of Youth Services and Sports, District Office Samba,the Inter-School Tournament in the disciplines of kabaddi and Kho-kho for boys and girls Under-14 and Under-17 years got underway, here today.
In Under-14 kho-kho boys, NV Dhalote trounced CMP Nud, while in Under-14 boys kabaddi, MIE Sumb drubbed HS Sarna by 11 points to lift the title.
15 teams participated in the kho-kho event, while 10 teams took part in the discipline of kabaddi.
The matches of Samba zone were held at Higher Secondary School Kehli Mandi, while the Ghagwal zone matches were held at Higher Secondary School ground Ghagwal.
About 250 students are participating in this 3-day tournament.