ACF calls off Sharjah tri-series

NEW DELHI: The fate of the Sharjah cricket series in aid of the Gujarat earthquake victims was sealed on Saturday itself when the sports ministry officially informed the cricket board officials that its proposal to send the Indian team to play in a triangular series in Sharjah had been rejected. But the Asian Cricket Foundation (ACF) made one last attempt on Sunday to salvage the trip before announcing that it was off.The Sharjah supporters in the board had pinned their last hope on external affairs minister Jaswant Singh who, they felt, should be able to revive the tour on his return home from Europe via Dubai on Monday afternoon. But, having known sports minister Uma Bharati''s stand that India should not play Pakistan in Sharjah, there was little hope of anyone overriding her decision. Though a couple of cabinet ministers did not seem averse to the idea of the team going to Sharjah, they did not want to create a major controversy by openly canvassing for the clearance of the February 8-11 triangular series. Bangladesh would have been the third team. According to sources, the ACF called off the proposed tri-series due to a delay in receiving written confirmations from Indian and Pakistani cricket boards. Now that the trip is off, some board members want the senior officials to come up with a comprehensive triangular or a quadrangular series soon after the visit of the Australian team or convert the one-day series between the two countries into a tri-series by inviting a third nation. Board president A C Muthiah, who is away in his native place Chettinad, is expected to galvanise the board machinery to hold the series to raise funds by straightaway appointing as high-powered organising committee. ``With eight flood-lit stadiums capable of cramming huge crowds the board can raise much more than what the ACF had promised, said an official. Quite a few cricket board members, including officials, are sore with the Asian Cricket Foundation for dragging the board into a needless controversy. They are also intrigued as to how an issue like this has even split the Union cabinet. Some of the board members said they were not opposed to playing Pakistan, but they had apprehensions about the venue. ``As cricket administrators we can''t dislike any venue and Sharjah''s contribution to international cricket can''t be discounted. We are only concerned about the adverse publicity it got in the CBI report in the wake of the betting and match-fixing allegations, said an official on the condition of anonymity. A senior board official blamed the ACF for springing a surprise on the board by deciding on the Sharjah series at a meeting in Lahore where an official of the Cricketers Benefit Fund Series (CBFS) was present but no top official of the Indian board. ``Of course, Jagmohan Dalmiya is from India and he is one of our respected colleagues, but he was there in the capacity as ACF chief. The official, not wanting to be named, stated that Dalmiya should at least have taken some of the board officials into confidence before going to Lahore. ``For most of us the decision to play the four-match series with Pakistan and India meeting twice, came as a bolt from the blue, he said. Most board members talked to in the last two days said Dalmiya, with his vast experience in various capacities on the Indian board as well as the International Cricket Council, should help the Indian board to organise the series in India. The members feel that a series in India will result in inflow of foreign exchange by way of TV rights and in any case much of the corporate money in international cricket is pumped in by the Indian companies. ``Any series outside India means outflow of foreign exchange and only a portion of the revenue spent by the Indian corporate houses comes back to the country, said one senior member. The board members also wondered why the ACF decided to call it off when it is for the Indian board to announce its decision not to go to Sharjah in view of the government''s refusal to grant it permission.