ICC turns down BCCI's request to change date of its meeting

Mumbai: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has rejected BCCI's request to shift the date of its board meeting on March 29 in Dubai to another date, as that clashes with the opening match of the 13th edition of the IPL this year.

With the top board officials scheduled to attend the all-important meeting, the BCCI may have to shift the start date of the IPL now, which was informally announced by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly a few days ago.

"The BCCI had written to the ICC to request for a date change, but that wasn't possible. The dates for these meetings (there is a series of ICC meetings in Dubai from March 27-29) were communicated to all the



member countries in August last year.

"The dates for all the ICC meetings are fixed well in advance. Even the dates for the next annual conference of the ICC, scheduled to be held in Cape Town on July 17 & 18 this year, were finalized last August itself," the source further added. The question that is bound to be raised in the BCCI is that if the dates of the meetings were fixed in August last year, why were they not considered before the IPL schedule was prepared?

Meanwhile, the IPL faces another hurdle as the Rajasthan Royals' decision to play three games in Guwahati, where they want to begin their campaign, has been challenged by a PIL in Rajasthan.