BCCI devising plans to arrest India slide

Stung by India's humiliating defeats in the first three Tests against England, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) yesterday decided that the president and the secretary should chart out the team's future course of action.

"The series was discussed extensively at the working committee meeting. The members felt that president (Shashank Manohar) and secretary (N Srinivasan) should decide the team's future course of action to arrest the slide," a top official of the working committee said yesterday.

This was the last meeting of the working committee chaired by Manohar, who will hand over the reins to president-elect Srinivasan.

Among other issues discussed, the BCCI decided that a former cricketer can be eligible to become a national selector after five years of retirement instead of 10 years. The BCCI took the decision to increase the pool of probable candidates for selectors.

"We have several cricketers who can become good selectors. But we are not able to rope them in because we have to wait for 10 years. Now we will we have a wider pool of eligible candidates to become national selectors," the official said.

It was also decided that subsidies to state associations from television rights should be raised from existing Rs 23 crore to Rs 27 crore.

The working committee is also looking into a request by Kochi IPL franchise to shift their base from Kochi to Ahmedabad.

Srinivasan said in a statement after the meeting: "The accounts for the year 2010-11 were approved. It was also decided that the 83rd Annual General Meeting of the Board will be held on 19th and 20th September 2011."