Oman Cricket officials attend ACC AGM

COLOMBO: The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has concluded its 34th Annual General Meeting in Colombo Sri Lanka on August 12. The meeting was chaired by incoming ACC President Najam Sethi of Pakistan and was attended by officials of the ACC member countries.

Pankaj Khimji attended the meeting as member of Executive Committee and Madhursinh Jesrani and Duleep Mendis represented Oman Cricket.

The Annual Report of 2016, annual financial statements for the year ended on 31st December 2016 and annual development plans were discussed and approved by the members.

One of the key decisions ratified at the AGM was the reintroduction of U-16 tournaments among the non-Test playing countries. With the introduction of the U-16 event, ACC will now conduct U-16, U-19, U-23/Emerging, Men’s senior events among its members. The ACC also holds a Women’s Asia Cup, last played in 2016.

A meeting of the Executive Committee of the ACC was also held on the same day. The Executive Committee ratified the hosting of U-19 Asia Cup 2017 this November in Malaysia as well as playing the Emerging Asia Cup Tournament on an annual basis as recommended by the ACC Development Committee.

The Emerging Asia Cup is currently played in every other year and the last edition was held in March 2017 in Bangladesh. The Executive Committee members felt that hosting events in this nature in non-Test playing countries will help to promote the game in developing member nations.

Malaysian Cricket Association President Mahinda Vallipuram thanked the Executive Committee members “for giving an opportunity for Malaysia to host the U-19 Asia Cup and said that Malaysian Cricket Association would give complete support to make the U19 Asia Cup 2017 a memorable event”.

This is the second time Malaysia is hosting the U-19 Asia Cup, after first doing so in 2012, when the final between India vs Pakistan was tied. Many of the players from that tournament have gone on to become full international stars.