da bet7： The Sports Ministry has forwarded the letter from the Board of Controlfor Cricket in India, asking for the Government’s permission to playagainst Pakistan at Karachi in the Asian Test Championship (ATC) matchin September, to the Ministry of
Staff and Agencies11-Aug-2001* BCCI’s letter seeking India’s participation in ATC reaches MEAThe Sports Ministry has forwarded the letter from the Board of Controlfor Cricket in India, asking for the Government’s permission to playagainst Pakistan at Karachi in the Asian Test Championship (ATC) matchin September, to the Ministry of External Affairs which will take afinal decision on the issue.Sports Minister Uma Bharti said on Friday that her ministry hadreceived BCCI’s letter dated July 26 and forwarded it to the MEA whichwill take a final decision in consultation with the Ministry of HomeAffairs. BCCI president AC Muthiah met Bharti on Friday to know theGovernment’s response to the letter. “She (Bharti) told me that thematter was under consideration,” Muthiah said after the meeting.”The Government has already said that it would allow the team to playagainst Pakistan in multi-lateral tournaments but a final decision onATC was still to be taken,” he said, adding that he expected thedecision by the third week of this month.To a suggestion whether India and Pakistan can play the ATC match at aneutral venue like Colombo, Muthiah said it would be unacceptable. “Ifwe don’t play Pakistan in Karachi, the tournament will have to becalled off. Pakistan wants us to play in their country. We also wantPakistan to come to India,” he said.* Utpal to lead CAB in Buchi Babu tourneyVeteran left arm spinner Utpal Chatterjee will lead CricketAssociation of Bengal in the All India Buchi Babu invitation crickettournament to be played at Chennai from August 12.The following are the other members of the team: Ritesh Jaiswal(wicket keeper), Rohan Gavaskar, Amitava Chakrabarty, SaikatMukherjee, Subhamoy Das, Souvik Mukherjee, Subhradeep Ganguly, SanjibSanyal, Sourashish Lahiri, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Shib Shankar Paul,Sabir Ali and Pradipta Majumder. Stand bye: Soumen Singh. Coach:Karsan Ghavri. Manager: Dipen Rudra.In case Ghavri, who is now in Mumbai attending to his ailing mother,cannot make the trip to Chennai, Dattatreya Mukherjee will take up thecoaching responsibility. The team will leaves Kolkata on August 13.CAB play their first match against ONGC from August 16.* Hyderabad CA team for Buchi Babu tourneyA Nanda Kishore will lead Hyderabad Cricket Association in the AllIndia Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament to be held at Chennaifrom August 12.The other members of the team are: Arvind Shetty, Anirudh Singh, DVinay Kumar, N Arjun Yadav, J Shivaji Yadav, Mohd. Ibrahim Khaleel,Noel David, Fatima Reddy, Mohd. Ghouse, T Suman, S Vishnu Vardhan, ATRayudu, Ahmed Quadri, B Anoop Pai. Manager: Girish Rao. Coach: ArshadAyub.HCA start their campaign with a first round match against MRF to beplayed from August 16.