The screening committee of the Asian Cricket Foundation (ACF) met inKolkata on Wednesday to begin the process of finalising the panel ofDevelopment Officers as part of a programme to promote the game in theAsian region

Staff and Agencies16-Aug-2001* ACF’s screening committee meets to finalise officersThe screening committee of the Asian Cricket Foundation (ACF) met inKolkata on Wednesday to begin the process of finalising the panel ofDevelopment Officers as part of a programme to promote the game in theAsian region.The screening committee, chaired by ACF chairman Jagmohan Dalmiya,went through the credentials of all nominees from three Test playingnations – India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The ACF had taken the decisionto appoint three Development Officers with considerable cricketingbackground at its conclave in Lahore in May to improve the standard ofthe game in non-Test playing nations in the region.Apart from Dalmiya, the screening committee comprises Tauqir Zia andZakir Syed (both Pakistan), Duleep Mendis (Sri Lanka) and Ashraf-ul-Haq (Bangladesh). Tauqir Zia, the president of the Asian CricketCouncil (ACC), however, could not attend the meeting due to some otherengagement in Pakistan.The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has nominated fourformer Test players for the post of development officers. Nationalselectors Ashok Malhotra and Madanlal, and former Test players RogerBinny and WV Raman are the four BCCI nominees. While Pakistanhas sent a list comprising former skippers Mushtaq Mohammed and ZaheerAbbas and medium pacer Iqbal Sikander, Sri Lanka has recommendedformer cricketers Roy Dias, Rumesh Ratnayake and Brendon Kuruppu.* Punjab under-19 tournament from August 26The Punjab Cricket Association has decided to organise an under-19Minor District tournament from August 28 in which 14 district teamswill take part. Giving this information, MP Pandove, secretary of thePCA said that the matches up to quarterfinal stage will be played atdifferent district headquarters and the final will be played at Mohalion September 1.The association is taking care to curb the menace of playing over-ageplayers in the tournament and has drawn up a comprehensive plan totackle it. All the district secretaries have been directed to getvarious X-rays of the players participating in the tournament and getthese verified from the authorised radiologist on the prescribedproforma about the age of the player, Pandove added.The secretary further said that the selectors of the Minor districtcommittee have been appointed match wise to note the performance ofthe players so that the combined Minor Districts team may beselected. This team will play in the main tournament for the DhruvPandove Trophy along with five major district teams – Amritsar,Jalandhar, Patiala, Ludhiana and Chandigarh.* Sanjay Manjrekar to lead Indian veteransFormer Indian batsman Sanjay Manjrekar will lead the India over-30team in the Cricket Club of India (CCI) one-day cricket tournament tobe held at the Brabourne stadium in Mumbai from December 29 to January3.According to CCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur, the Marylebone CricketClub (MCC) from England and the Melbourne Cricket Club of Australiawill be the two other contestants.The MCC team is likely to be led by former England captain MikeGatting while Sandeep Patil, K Srikkanth, Madan Lal, Dilip Doshi,Yashpal Sharma and Kiran More are expected to turn out for the Indianteam.