Asia Cup put off for India's complaint
Afp, Mumbai
Cricket's six-nation Asia Cup due to take place in Pakistan early next year has been postponed after Indian complained that their players faced a gruelling schedule, officials said Sunday."The tournament will be organised later at a mutually convenient date," Sharad Pawar, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), told reporters in Mumbai after a meeting of the newly-elected office bearers. Hosts Pakistan agreed to India's request to cancel the limited-overs tournament to give Indian players respite from their non-stop schedule, officials said. Asia's premier event featuring India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Oman was to be organised by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in Pakistan from February 16-28 next year. The event was sandwiched between India's tour of Pakistan in January-February and England's tour of India starting in the last week of February. "India play three Tests and five one-dayers in Pakistan and another three Tests and seven one-dayers at home against England, so another one-day series is not a good idea," a BCCI source told AFP earlier Sunday. The biennial Asia Cup was planned by Asian Cricket Council chief Jagmohan Dalmiya, who stepped down as its president on Saturday following his faction's defeat in last week's BCCI elections. Pawar is certain to replace Dalmiya as the ACC president since India's term to head the continental body lasts until June. The Indian team has been on the road since August, playing in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe before returning home for 12 one-dayers against Sri Lanka and South Africa in November. Rahul Dravid's men will complete a three-Test series against Sri Lanka on December 22, tour Pakistan in January-February, play England at home from March 8-April 28 and then tour the West Indies in May-June. The postponement of the Asia Cup is a blow for its TV rights holder, ESPN-Star Sports network, which last week lost out on the India-Sri Lanka Test series to rival Zee Network. The pan-Asian ESPN-Star Sports, jointly owned by Disney and News Corp., is involved in a bitter struggle with Zee for control of the lucrative Indian market. The BCCI is expected to award by the end of the year satellite TV rights for home matches until 2009.
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