The Asian Cricket Council secretary Zakir Mohammad Sayeed on Fridaysaid that the Test playing countries in Asia have agreed in principalto a system by which a side failing to honour contractual obligationsto play in a series has to offer

Staff and Agencies26-May-2001PCB happy with Muthiah’s explanationThe Asian Cricket Council secretary Zakir Mohammad Sayeed on Fridaysaid that the Test playing countries in Asia have agreed in principalto a system by which a side failing to honour contractual obligationsto play in a series has to offer compensation to its rival team.Talking over the phone from Lahore to PTI, Sayeed said “the presidentsof the Cricket Boards of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,who met during the two-day ACC meeting that concluded on Friday,agreed that such a system was desirable but left the details to beworked out later by a sub-committee.”Sayeed and the PCB appeared to be happy with the explanation given bythe BCCI president AC Muthiah. Welcoming the explanation, Sayeed said”the Pakistan officials had not made an issue of the Indiangovernment’s decision to skip the bilateral series.” He added “We arevery happy about it (that India and Pakistan can play in multi-lateraltournaments).”Meanwhile, the PCB proposed a quadrangular one-day tournament nextyear to be jointly hosted by both India and Pakistan to cement cricketties between them. “The Indian authorities have shown flexibility infurthering cricket ties with Pakistan and have taken initiatives inthis regard by agreeing to allow their team to play Pakistan in multilateral tournaments. The PCB welcomes this,” PCB chief Lt Gen TauqirZia told reporters in Lahore after the completion of a two-dayconference of the Asian Cricket Council. “West Indies is visitingPakistan early next year and Zimbabwe will be in India. It is a goodopportunity to organise a tournament involving all the fourcountries,” Zia said, adding that the tournament can be played in boththe countries.Chauhan bans use of mobile phones in dressing roomFormer Indian opener and team manager Chetan Chauhan has said he wouldnot allow mobiles phones within the dressing room area. Chauhan saidhe would take all steps to ensure that no betting or match-fixingtakes place. Talking to PTI, Chauhan said “There is no need to have acurfew on the boys as such since they are well-behaved and understandtheir role vis-a-vis the Board and the nation.”Indian captain Sourav Ganguly said he was confident of his team mates.”I don’t really need to tell them what is expected of them. They arevery well-behaved and know exactly what is expected of them,” he said.Binny not in favour of selection of five seamers for ZimbabweThe junior India coach Roger Binny on Friday said the selectors shouldhave picked an additional spinner instead of five seamers for theupcoming Zimbabwe tour. Talking to reporters in Kolkata, Binny said “Iam not in favour of five seamers for the tour. I think we should havepicked one or two more spinners to make the bowling attack morebalanced. I would have preferred two more spinners.”Asked about the prospects of the Indian team in Zimbabwe, Binny said”I really can’t say. I don’t have much idea about the conditions inZimbabwe. It should be a good series.” He added "But going by theperformance during the home series against the strong Australian team,I think we should do well there. The series win against Australiashould have given a lot of confidence to the team.”Binny mentioned Haryana’s Ajay Ratra and Bengal’s Deep Dasgupta asfuture prospects. “Both are talented youngsters and they are shapingup nicely for the future. They will give a tough fight to the seniorwicket keepers soon”. On the players chosen for the NCA, Binny said”These youngsters are all very keen. We are emphasizing on physicalfitness and fielding, the two areas where we need to improve. We willhave players who are physically fitter and better fielders in thefuture.”Ganguly favours appointment of media manager for the teamIndian captain Sourav Ganguly has mooted the idea of appointing amedia manager for the team, saying it would ease the pressure on thecaptain and the players considerably. “Most of the teams have a mediamanager these days which makes the job much easier for the team. Onlythe teams in the sub-continent don’t have one. I think it is verynecessary”, Ganguly said in an interview to Doordarshan telecast onFriday.In a joint interview with his wife Dona, Ganguly said the need hasarisen as the captain has to meet and brief the press very often.”When statements are distorted, people who read the reports have adifferent idea of the situation. If we have a media manager, it willease the pressure on the captain, coach and the manager,” he said. Headded “the series of controversial articles and misreporting in recenttimes has prompted me to be more reticent and choosy while handlingthe media in the country….after some time, you come to know who isdoing the right thing and who is not doing. You have to judge foryourself.”On the recently concluded Australian series, the stylish left-handersaid “Everything was part of a strategy. They (Australians) dideverything they wanted and often crossed the limits. I think it wasnot correct on their part. We just gave them back”, the Indian skipperdisclosed.Dona said that though life had changed a lot after her husband becamethe national captain, many things still remained the same. Going tothe movie halls has become a big problem for Indian cricket’s starcouple. “He enjoys going to the movies. We generally go for the lastshow. If there is a lot of crowd, Sourav joins us after the showstarts when it is dark”, she said.Orissa government comes down heavily on OCAThe crisis between the Orissa government and the sporting bodies inthe state deepened following the government’s refusal to withdrawcertain guidelines to the state sports associations for holdinginternational and national sports events in the state. Rejecting theallegations that guidelines were intended to empower the government toexercise control over the sports bodies, the Minister of State forSports and Youth Services, Ranendra Pratap Swain, told reporters inBhubaneswar on Friday that the government only wanted to avoid anyunpleasant situation, including law and order problems during a sportsevent. The minister made it clear that the government’s move wasprompted by the chaotic scenes witnessed during the India-Zimbabwecricket match held at Cuttack last December.Severely criticising the Orissa Cricket Association (OCA) for themanner in which the match was organised, Swain said that free passesand complimentary tickets accounted for more than sixty per cent ofthe official capacity of stadium and spectators were allowed to sitjust outside the boundary line creating a law and order problem. Hetermed the allegations against the government as “politicallymotivated” and said that the government would not like to interfere inthe autonomy of the sports associations, but at the same time wouldnot tolerate commercialization and politicization of sports.