ISLAMABAD, April 6: The International Cricket Council has agreed to provide US$19.5 million for the development of the sport in Asia, the Secretary of Asian Cricket Council Zakir Hussain Syed said on Saturday.

“We will receive this sum in two-yearly instalments till 2007,” Zakir told a news conference held to highlight the ACC Development Programme, 2002-2003, to be undertaken at a cost of over US$3 million.

The US$3,075,800 ACC development programme, 2002-2003, will run from April 1, 2002 to March 31, 2003.

Zakir said the ACC has now decided to set up its permanent Secretariat in Malaysia. He gave a detailed briefing on ACC development initiatives such as academies, coaching assignments, “Fast Track” countries, Central courses, preparation of course materials and “New Territories”.

He also said the ACC had almost fully implemented its development programme for the outgoing year 2001-2002.

About the academies under the development programme 2002-2003, he said a Central Cricket Academy will be established in Nepal alongwith Regional Academies in Malaysia and UAE. The Central Cricket Academy in Nepal will be a state of the art Academy with professional staffing for future needs, while the Regional Academies in Malaysia and UAE will cater to the requirement of players from the countries in these two regions respectively.

About coaching assignments, he said the three Development Officers i.e. Iqbal Sikander, Roger Binny and Rumesh Ratnayke will spend eight months each in their respective countries of deputation.

At the end of each assignment, the Development Officers will be asked to organize a regional tournament comprising countries of their deputation followed by a central competition in which each champion team of the 3 regions will compete, he said.

UAE, Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong have been identified by the ACC as “Fast Track” countries with a view to prepare them for One Day International (ODI) status in the near future, Zakir said.

“In order to equip their national teams with adequate skills and experience for future, the ACC has given these five countries funds to hire professional coaches for a period of 12 months who would primarily work with the national teams,” he added.

On the subject of central courses, Zakir said there are a total of 14 central courses including two each in coaching (Level-III and IV), Cricket Management and Administration, umpiring, sports medicine and curatorship.

In addition to these courses, two high profile coaching courses for National Coaches have been provided within the approved budget i.e. 10 days course under Bob Woolmer, ICC High Performance Manager and 10 days course under the Australian Cricket Academy, he said and added the dates of the 10 days course under Bob Woolmer have already been confirmed (October 2002).

Briefing on preparation of Course Materials, the ACC Secretary said suitable professionals will be hired to produce Course Materials for training in the fields of Umpiring, Cricket Management, Coaching, Curatorship, Physical Fitness (Sports medicine.) These arrangements will eliminate dependence on experts outside Asia for future courses.

“We already have Keith McAuliffe and Dr. Vece Paes in the field of Ground Development and Sports Medicine who could be requested to produce similar material for the ACC,” Zakir said, adding: “Such arrangements would institutionalize the entire system”.

Explaining the concept of “New Territories”, Zakir said each Development Officer has been instructed to make orientation visits to “new territories”.

This has been done to assess the present state of cricket development in those areas and then, based on their recommendations, proper follow up action with the approval of ACC will be taken for granting affiliation to those countries which have a reasonable set up, he said.

The following are the new territories and their respective development officers:

Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Yeman (Iqbal Sikander).

Cambodia, Burma and China (Rumesh Ratnayke), Brunei (Roger Binny).

Zakir also gave details of the development programme implemented by the ACC in 2001-2002.— APP