News Byte

Dhoni or Kapil to attend prize distribution function for Clubs on Nov 4
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GCA News Bytes "Either Mahendra Singh Dhoni or Kapil Dev will be present for the Goa Cricket Association (GCA) annual prize distribution function for clubs on November 4 at 7p.m. Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'souza will be invited too," stated GCA President Chetan Desai at a press briefing after the GCA managing committee meeting in Porvorim on Saturday. "Dhoni and Kapil are expected to confirm their availability within twenty four hours," added Desai. "The managing committee took a decision to have a solar system plant for GCA, keeping in mind the Prime Ministers directive to save carbon emissions. Since the idea has come up at the managing committee meeting, the modalities of the solar plant are awaited. Once GCA's becomes self-sufficient, the idea is to sell the excess energy to some grid," stated Chetan Desai. "The GCA is capable of building a stadium in Thivim and Bicholim. We will start work on the site we get permission first. The plan in Bicholim is to build a sports city. I am sure one stadium will be ready befoe the end of this managing committee. We can then have not one but many more ODI's , Test matches and even IPL encounters. There will be no stopping us," stated Desai. "The GCA has written to the BCCI in regards to the Goa Professional League (GPL). We do not want to repeat what happened last year. We have asked BCCI to allow us to get corporates involved. The GCA proposal was discussed in the last BCCI meeting on October 18. President Shashank Manohar has informed us that permission will be granted in principle subject to certain conditions being fulfilled," disclosed Chetan Desai. ˜The idea is to give the players from Goa a chance to play with players from outside. We cannot make it a tournament only for Goan boys as we do not have so many players in Goa. If we had, we would have made a tournament only for our boys," explained the GCA president. Explaining how Goa is faring at the Ranji and other levels in the country, GCA secretary Vinod Phadke said: " Our Ranji team is improving and playing better. We have done very well at the Under-23 level. We have had some initial hiccups in the Under -19 category. But things are being sorted out. The emphasis is on under-14. We have selected sixty players now. The number will be trimmed to thirty next. Focussing on youngsters helps us make a base for our senior teams," "The GCA ground is ready. A committee has been formed to look afte the functioning and upkeep of the ground," stated Phadke." We are going to start all tournaments early this year. We intend to start soon after Diwali and complete all tournament by February," disclosed Phadke.