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| January 14, 2006 | Saturday | Zilhaj 13, 1426 |
Champions Trophy venues finalized
KARACHI, Jan 13: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday selected venues for the Champions Trophy to be held in India later this year and discussed the snowballing crisis in Zimbabwe cricket.
The Indian cities of Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi will host matches in the 10-team Champions Trophy limited-overs tournament which starts on Oct 7 and ends with the final in Mumbai on Nov 5.
The top eight nations in the ICC’s one-day rankings on April 1 will be joined by two qualifiers in the tournament, the ICC said in a statement after a meeting of its executive board here.
ICC president Ehsan Mani and chief executive Malcolm Speed also held a private meeting with Peter Chingoka, the chairman of the government-appointed committee responsible for running cricket in Zimbabwe.
“In this meeting Mani and Speed highlighted a number of areas of concern which the ICC expects the committee to urgently resolve in an open and transparent manner,” the statement said.
“These include addressing allegations of financial mismanagement, ensuring disputes between players and the board are effectively addressed and providing certainty for other ICC members that the strongest possible Zimbabwe cricket team will fulfil future international commitments.”
The Zimbabwe team last month went on strike over pay issues and demanded the dismissal of Chingoka and Zimbabwe Cricket managing director Ozias Bvute.
The ICC also held meetings with various television channels to discuss the Indian government’s ruling that major sporting events involving the national team must be made available free to state broadcaster Doordarshan.
“It has been very helpful to draw together all of our members and many of the major TV rights holders in international cricket to discuss this important issue,” Mani said in the statement.
“We now have a much better understanding of the potential implications of the recent government directive regarding sports television rights in India.
“It was very important to open a wide-reaching dialogue on this issue and we will continue to monitor the issue along with all of these important stakeholders.”
Among the TV channels invited for the meeting were CSI Octagon, Doordarshan, ESPN-Star Sports, Sony, TEN Sports, Trans World International (TWI) and Zee network.
Pakistan seam bowler Shabbir Ahmed, who was banned for 12 months for an illegal action last month, will appear before an ICC review committee in Dubai on Jan 21, ICC media officer Jon Long said.—Agencies
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