Board officials set to discuss FTP in Monday’s meeting
MUMBAI: With Indian cricket’s broadcast deal up for sale, the focus of BCCI officials will be to find a way to manipulate ICC’S Future Tours Programme (FTP) to get the most out of it. The FTP, will be on top of the agenda at BCCI’S Special General Meeting in New Delhi on Monday. In June, Vivo bid Rs 2199 crore to become IPL title sponsor for five years.
But finding broadcasters willing to splurge for the national team’s TV rights may not be that easy. It was a win-win situation in the current deal as India played 90 per cent of their cricket at home in 2016-17. In 2018, India play mostly abroad. Hence, to attract bidders, BCCI will have to get the FTP right for 2019-2024.
A meeting between the Committee of Administrators and BCCI officials has entrusted treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary with chalking out the FTP. The focus will be to have a strong home schedule and avoid the current situation where a new broadcaster faces a barren season. The idea is to host games in Octobernovember and February-march.
There will also be discussion on playing days, which skipper Virat Kohli wants to be pruned. Players have the backing of the COA but Board officials insist it is its prerogative to decide schedule. The SGM has to clear a compensation of around Rs 850 crore to defunct IPL franchise Kochi Tuskers Kerala as well as lift the ban on the Rajasthan association.
EXPERIMENTATION Karthik, Pandey, Iyer and Pandya belong to the ‘experimentation group’ in the Indian team as India zero in on the core group for the World Cup. However, in its eagerness to give the younger lot a longer run to prove themselves, the team management seems to be ignoring proper planning.
Consider this. On the eve of the match, Dhawan had fever and Kedar Jadhav was ruled out due to thigh injury. And India are without their most consistent performer – Virat Kohli.
In such a scenario, Iyer was given his maiden ODI cap. Before the team sheet arrived, most thought the three-t20-old batsman would be in the middle order. But Rahane, who scored four straight half-centuries in the last home ODI series against Australia, was left out. India’s experienced top order has done the bulk of the work in building an enviable record at home, but the team