After MCA, Kerala CA protests against domestic schedule

A day after Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) raised its objection regarding the scheduling of the domestic calender, Kerala Cricket Association on Wednesday turned the heat on GM (Cricket Operations) Saba Karim, asking him to change the scheduling of National U16 Championship for the Vijay Merchant Trophy.

Karim has played a major role in finalising the domestic fixture and most of the suggestions by the technical committee headed by former India captain Sourav Ganguly.

In fact, a lot of technical committee members have been questioning as to what’s the need for having meetings if Karim wants to take decisions unilaterally.

In a departure from previous years, the BCCI has decided to advance the dates of the Vijay Merchant Trophy (national U-16 boys tournament) by two months from its usual December start. This year, it is scheduled to start on October 3.

Kerala CA secretary Sreejith V Nair categorically stated that it will be difficult to conduct trials of U-16 boys in monsoon season. “In the past this age-group tournament was always scheduled to start from the 1st week of December. The revamped BCCI domestic calendar has advanced the tournament by almost two months. There was no indication whatsoever of such a major advancing of the dates,” Nair wrote in a letter to Karim.