No more Asian Test meets and Afro-Asian series

Dubai: The Asian Cricket Council's (ACC) Asian Test Championship and the Afro-Asian tournaments will be cancelled soon. The ACC is yet to make a statement regarding the stoppage of these two events.

Shaharyar Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, who attended a meeting of the ACC in Mumbai, said: "These two tournaments will be stopped to give rest to the players.

Little gap

"The Future Tour Programme [FTP] for the teams during the next six years provides very little gap between events. Cancellation of these tournaments would give the players enough time to rest." The Asian Test Championship was held only in 1998 and 2002, but could not be organised again due to the tight schedule of the Asian teams.

The Afro-Asian tournament one-day series was held in South Africa last year. This event was the brainchild of former International Cricket Council and ACC chief Jagmohan Dalmiya.

This one-day series was meant to raise funds for cricket-playing nations in Asia and Africa. With the Dalmiya group being voted out of power in India, the newly elected Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) body is keen to cancel all programmes initiated by Dalmiya.

The Afro-Asian cricket committee had plans to conduct an annual one-day series and even under-19 tournaments. Now, the Afro-Asian Cricket Committee itself is likely to be dissolved. Sharad Pawar, the newly elected ACC president, is likely to revamp the ACC soon.