Venues for WI Tour of India Announced

India-WI to play five ODIs, one T20I and three Tests from Oct 8-Nov 19

India will play the West Indies in five ODIs, one T20 International and three Tests, in October-November 2014.  

The match-schedule is as follows:

ODI SERIES

8 Oct - Kochi
11 Oct - Vishakhapatnam
14 Oct - Cuttack
17 Oct - Kolkata
20 Oct - Dharamshala

T20 INTERNATIONAL

22 Oct - Delhi

TEST SERIES

30 Oct – 3 Nov - Hyderabad
7 Nov – 11 Nov - Bengaluru
15 Nov – 19 Nov - Ahmedabad

Indian Domestic Cricket fixtures 2014-15

The domestic season will kick off with the zonal first-class tournament, the Duleep Trophy, which will be played from October 15 to November 3, while the zonal one-dayers - the Deodhar Trophy - will be played from November 7 to 14. The Vijay Hazare Trophy, the all-India one-day knockouts, will be staged from November 19 to 25.

The Ranji Trophy, which used to begin in the last week of October ever since the multi-tiered system was introduced, will now start on December 7. The Ranji final will be from March 8 to 12, which will effectively clash with the 2015 World Cup.

Duleep Trophy- October 15 to November 3 
Zonal One-day leagues- November 7 to 14 
Vijay Hazare Trophy: November 19 to 25 

Deodhar Trophy: November 29 to December 3

Group A- Karnataka, Bengal, Mumbai, Railways, UPCA, Baroda, Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh
Group B - Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat, Saurashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, Vidarbha, Haryana, Odisha
Group C - Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Hyderabad, Andhra, Assam, Tripura, Jharkhand, Services

Ranji Trophy semis: February 25 to March 1
Ranji Trophy quarters: February 15 to 19
Ranji Trophy Final: March 8 to 12 
Irani Cup: March 17 to 21 
Zonal Twenty20 leagues: March 25 to 28
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: April 1 to 7

West Indies Tour of India: BCCI Announces Venues for Tests, ODIs and T20I

West Indies will play three Tests, Five ODIs & One T20 in india later this year.

The BCCI Tours and Fixtures Committee has shortlisted Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad for India's three-Test series against the West Indies during October and November this year.
The committee has allotted the five ODIs to Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Cuttack, Dharamsala and Kochi while Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla will be hosting its first ever T20 International.

The exact date-wise match-schedule will be finalised later on the basis of logistics. As per media reports Ranchi was being dubbed as a possible venue for a Test match but a senior BCCI official said that there was no discussion on the venue. "Yes, Ranchi has got the ICC nod and BCCI needs to ratify it as a Test centre during a working committee meeting.
But above everything, Ranchi needs to come into the rotation policy system which is in work. How could we have allotted Ranchi a match when there are other centres with valid claims of hosting a Test as per rotation policy," the source told PTI.

Eden Gardens and Dharamsala hosted their last one-dayers in December 2012 (vs Pakistan) and January 2013 (vs England) respectively. For Kotla, it will be the first T20 International that the ground will host, having staged its first ODI back in 1982. Ravi Jain, BCCI's deputy head of media committee and media convenor of DDCA, said that the association is ready to host the match. "We will leave no stone unturned to make this T20 International a grand success," Jain said

Raj Singh Dungarpur was More Than A Father Figure, Says Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar remembered former BCCI President Raj Singh Dungarpur's big role in shaping up his cricket career.

"Rajbhai has played an immense role in making me the cricketer that I am and giving me the opportunities that I had in my life," sachin said at the book launch 'Raj Singh Dungarpur A Tribute'.


Dungarpur was BCCI's president for three years from 1996, served as the chairman of the national selection committee (including when Tendulkar was first picked in the Indian team in 1989), and was also the Indian team manager on several tours, including the victorious trip to England in 1986.

It was Dungarpur who was instrumental in amending the rules of the CCI to allow Tendulkar use its dressing room as a 14-year-old, making things smooth for the champion batsman very early in his glittering career."I was only 13 years old and CCI was playing against Shivaji Park youngsters and I scored some runs. Under 18 were not allowed to be in the dressing room.

(Pic Source: PTI/ANI)

"I didn't have deep pockets and Rajbhai was again instrumental in finding a sponsor for me. He said in his own style 'you should play cricket and leave the rest to me'. With that kind of support and encouragement, all you want to do is score as many runs as possible," Tendulkar said.

It's official! IPL 7 final to stay in Bangalore

Mumbai Cricket Association's promise to comply with all the conditions notwithstanding, the Indian Premier League's Governing Council has decided that the June 1 final of the T20 tournament would be held in Bangalore as announced earlier. 

"The GC had a conference call last night and after a lot of deliberation among the members it was unanimously decided to stick to our earlier decision, that is to play the final in Bangalore," BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel told PTI from Baroda yesterday morning. 



"One of the main reasons is we don't have time till Monday (tomorrow) or Tuesday as a lot of preparations are needed to be done," said Patel. Other BCCI sources indicated that though MCA had written to the IPL GC that it would meet all the demands, a written permission from Mumbai police to allow bursting of firecrackers past 10 pm was not provided. 

MCA secretary Nitin Dalal told PTI that this permission would have been obtained in the coming week. "We had accepted all the demands. (Sharad) Pawar saheb would have got this permission this week," said Dalal, who said he was not aware of the IPL GC's decision to keep the final in Bangalore. 

MCA vice-president Ravi Savant had said that MCA had accepted all the 14 demands put forward by the IPL's governing council to stage the match. "We have decided to accept all the conditions because the MCA president (Sharad Pawar) desired that the match should be played in Mumbai only," Savant had said.