By Baidurjo Bhose
New Delhi, Jul 16 (IANS): The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) all-important Apex Council meeting will take place on Friday and the major areas of discussion will be the FTP (Future Tours Programme) which has been heavily disturbed by the coronavirus pandemic, the progress made with regards to the construction of the new National Cricket Academy (NCA) facility and most importantly the fate of domestic cricketers who need to be safeguarded against the pandemic and it's economic effects.
The other points on the agenda are discussions on the 2021 World T20 and tax matters related to it, Bihar cricket, filling up of vacancies of employees of the board, payment of grants of newly affiliated units, extension of digital services of BCCI and IPL.
Speaking to IANS, a BCCI functionary said that the FTP and the domestic structure and fate of domestic players should ideally be the biggest talking points when the decision makers meet as the world is slowly moving towards life in the post-coronavirus era.
"You cannot put one above the other. As you know, while the FTP is very important considering how he move forward after so many series cancellations and piling up of commitments, domestic cricket needs equal importance. As we are aware our president is very vocal about safeguarding the interest of domestic players and that is how it should be.
"Along with preparing and going through the international plan, domestic structure also needs a major look. We have to find a way to ensure that we can restart domestic cricket as soon as we get the green signal from the government. The IPL will also play a major role in this and we should be able to take a final call on the venue for the 13th edition of the league," the functionary pointed.
Asked about the discussion on the new NCA facility, the functionary said: "That will also be an important area of discussion as that is a huge land we have and can house around three proper international standard grounds. So the progress made so far and what are the areas that need to be worked on will also be discussed when we sit down tomorrow."
Coming to the matter of World T20, the functionary said that it will be more to do with the tax related discussions for the 2021 edition and not so much about this edition which is now more or less a closed chapter.
"We will be discussing the matter of tax exemption as we have time till December so don't expect a decision tomorrow. It will be more about seeing the ways we can work towards it as India hosts the T20 World Cup next year. We might also see our president discussing what is the status when it comes to this edition which is now more or less set to be shifted to 2022," the functionary explained.