ICC closes doors for Indonesia

The International Cricket Council has turned down Indonesia's request to join the Asia cricket zone from the current East Asia Pacific zone, a Cricket Indonesia official said.

"It's a bad news. The problem is that the board did not invite us to attend the hearing to explain the reasons of our appeal," said Sachin Gopalan, chairman Cricket Indonesia, according to the Jakarta Post daily.

"The board has given us another chance next year and we have set a special team to be sent to represent us in the hearing."

Cricket Indonesia would focus on the expansion and the development of the sport at home, Gopalan said.

"We won't compete in international tournaments in the (East Asia Pacific) zone. Instead, we will use the funds allocated for the competition to hold more extensive tournaments back home to select players for the under-19 national team and national team," he said.

Indonesia has complained of being wrongly grouped with countries that are far away and expensive to reach for participation in the tourneys, such as the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and South Korea.

It wants to be placed in the Asia zone along with neighbours Malaysia and Singapore.

"With Malaysia and Singapore, we can have a regular training exchange and try-outs with relatively affordable costs. Besides, the similar cultures would make the exchange much more effective," said Cricket Indonesia secretary Prakash Vijaykumar.

--Xinhua

(IANS)

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