Nair all praise for Zayed Stadium

S. Karunakaran Nair, Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was all praise for the Zayed Cricket Stadium here in the capital.

Nair, who stopped over in the UAE on his way back to India from South Africa and Zimbabwe after attending a World Cup Cricket Committee meeting, was noticably impressed with the new cricket stadium which is gearing up to host some matches in the Asian under-15 cricket championship from December 7.

"This is such a superb cricketing facility," said Nair after a tour of the stadium.

Abu Dhabi Cricket Council Chairman Saeed Atiq, President Mansour Javed, Vice President B.R Shetty, General Secretary Enam-ul-Haq and stadium manager Salim Altaf briefed Nair on the various facilities.

"Such a facility should constantly have top class cricket action and the efforts of the ADCC officials should now be focussed on this aspect," he said.

Earlier, speaking to reporters, Nair said that the BCCI was still in no position to comment on India and Pakistan playing each other again.

"We have put forward our case to the Government of India and it is up to the government to decide. The Government's stand continues to be the same," he said, adding that he was optimistic.

Nair said he was hopeful that the special committee, formed by the ICC to look into the players' contracts issue, would come up with a suitable formula.

"The ICC Chief Executive was in Delhi recently and though his statements on the contracts issue were neither positive nor negative, I feel there is a ray of hope as the Committee is at work," Nair added.

Commenting on India's chances at next year's World Cup in South Africa, Nair said the tour of New Zealand was crucial. "Our focus will be on the next few weeks and we are also planning to send the one-day players earlier than scheduled to allow them to get acclimatised," Nair said.

Nair said that he was part of a committee of the countries scheduled to play in Zimbabwe and this committee would give its recommendations to the ICC on aspects such as security.

"We visited the stadiums and also meet various security officials, members of the public, politicians and the diplomats there and based on that we will give our report to the ICC," he added.

Nair was to attend a dinner reception organised by the ECB and CBFS last night and was scheduled to leave for Trivandrum late tonight.