Board of Control for Cricket in India chief Jagmohan Dalmiya has blamed an overdose of international cricket as the reason why members of the Indian team don't play enough domestic tournaments.

"Cricket played is too much. The 10-year ICC program should be spread over 15 years," he suggested.

Speaking at the conclave of Ranji Trophy captains and coaches in Mumbai, Dalmiya said domestic cricket can only improve with the participation of players from the national team.

"It will help and be better, but as the international schedule is so busy it is difficult for them [the Indian team players] to play."

Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar, who chaired the meeting, also agreed with the BCCI chief, saying the time between tours is too short for the players to play domestic cricket.

He said players like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid should participate in domestic tournaments to make them more competitive. "However, it [top players' participation] is going to be difficult due to their heavy international commitments at the moment," he added.

Former India players Bishen Singh Bedi, Lalchand Rajput, Venkatesh Prasad, Venkatapathy Raju, Vijay Dahiya, Ajay Ratra, Arshad Ayub and Paras Mhambrey attended the meeting.

It was also decided that instead of being a one-off event, the conclave of Ranji Trophy captains and coaches would henceforth be held annually.

Gavaskar said the BCCI may invite a foreign team for next year's Duleep Trophy tournament in order to make it more competitive.

"There is a likelihood of inviting a foreign team for next year's Duleep Trophy, to be played on league-cum-knock-out basis.

"As the English County season ends by September there is a strong likelihood of the winning county or Bangladesh national team participating in the Duleep Trophy next season.

"We pick players in the Duleep Trophy on their Ranji Trophy performances. If one team has a bad day then those players don't get an opportunity for another year. If there is a sixth team then there can be two groups where each team gets two matches each.

"We are therefore planning to have a sixth team to the zonal championship so as to make the tournament more competitive, though nothing has been finalised so far," Gavaskar, who is the chairman of BCCI's Technical Committee, added.

Amongst various other suggestions made at the conclave there was also a call to play domestic one-day matches under lights, with coloured clothing and white balls.

Describing Friday's meeting as "a very good interaction with captains and coaches", Gavaskar said, "Everybody present during the meeting contributed in a bid to improve the domestic structure, with discussions on pitches, format of tournaments, umpires and match observers. Now the technical committee will take a final decision on these matters."

Speaking about the promotion and demotion of Ranji Trophy teams last season, Dalmiya said Karnataka, who won the Plate event quite comfortably, and runners-up Kerala have been promoted, while Orissa and Himachal Pradesh have been demoted from next year's Elite group.

The Board president, however, sidestepped several key issues, like the progress made on the pitch report and interaction with the selectors and other BCCI members.

Instead of giving the progress report on implementing the recommendations of the New Zealand Sports Turf Institute, Dalmiya said the Board will soon be holding a meeting with the pitches committee.

He went on to inform that 26 per cent of what the BCCI earns would go towards fees and prize-money. Of that amount, he said, 13 per cent would go to the international players and 13 to domestic. From the domestic cricketers' share, three per cent will go to junior cricketers while the other ten to domestic players.

He said the Fixtures committee meeting will ensure that this year the season ends on time and not like last year, when it ended in May.

It is very rare that the chief honcho of the BCCI is caught on the wrong foot, and that too face to face with the media.

Asked why the media was not allowed to grill the chairman of selectors about the selections to the Indian team, Dalmiya said it was "not beneficial".

"It was coming to a debate, creating a problem between the selectors and the chairman and the players. It became a trial by the media for the chairman of selectors."

Reminded that the practice was in place for long, he said, "It has not gone on for 65 years, but only when Mohinder Amarnath was dropped that chief selector Raj Singh Dungarpur asked for permission to explain to the media the reason for his exclusion.

"Why a player has been selected cannot be discussed with the media."

Dalmiya also informed that the Board has also provided physical trainers for most of the associations apart from giving away around 1.5 million to each association to improve infrastructure.

"We have also asked the captains and coaches to send their reports on pitches as early as possible," Dalmiya said.

"We have also decided to invite umpires and match observers along with captains and coaches for better interaction before the start of the new season."

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