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"This is going to be an annual fixture"

M S Shankar

Hyderabad Cricket Association secretary M Ranga Reddy is one happy man.

And why not? India, Pakistan and New Zealand, the three teams slated to take part in the Siyaram's Cup ODI tournament between June 12-June 16, have all announced full strength teams. In fact, all three are fielding close to the same sides that recently participated in the Independence Cup.

"India and Pakistan, alone are enough to guarantee enormous spectator interest. And New Zealand is a very good team, as they proved just a few days ago. It is all set for an exciting tournament," Reddy enthuses.

And so bucked is he about the response, that he goes out of his way to add that the tournament is merely the first in an annual series. "Every year, we will bring in two foreign teams, and India of course will be the third team. The idea is to benefit the association and its members, and to create a corpus for deserving former players."

Siyaram Silks has apparently done the organisers proud. The company, besides picking up the expenses, will also put up purses of $25,000 for the winners, $15,000 to the runner up and $10,000 to the third placed team. "We asked for, and received, permission from the Board of Control for Cricket in India to stage this tournament," says Reddy. "The International Cricket Council for its part regretted that it could not accomodate the Siyaram Cup Series into its 1997-1998 calendar." So will the HCA seek ICC approval for the planned annual fixture? "Frankly, no," comes the immediate rejoinder. "It is too much of a headache."

Reddy indicated that the idea of organising the tournament belongs to former Test off-spinner Arshad Ayub, who in the past has organised six a side tournaments in Hyderabad. Funnily enough, Ayub and the HCA fell out over those slam-bam games, with the latter accusing the former player of commercialising the game to make a fast buck. Today, however, Ayub and the HCA are back to working in tandem, with the former providing the idea but leaving it up to Reddy, and to HCA joint secretary and former Test star Shivlal Yadav, to handle the nitty gritty.

Siyaram Silks' involvement, however, goes way beyond bearing the costs of the tournament. In addition, Reddy says, the company will donate Rs 200,000 to the association, and Rs 100,000 each to former Ranji players Ghulam Ahmed, S R Mehta and E B Aibara. The fourth beneficiary is yet to be decided, but will be one of two senior umpires from the state. Besides, the HCA has announced an award of Rs 25,000 to the state journalists' union.

There are, however, some allegations doing the rounds - and thus far, none of those involved in organising the tournament are willing to comment about them - that there is inequity in doling out the appearance money. The buzz is that Pakistan is getting a good package, while India and New Zealand will only get a fraction of that amount. Meanwhile, Sachin Tendulkar has reportedly been offered Rs one million to play in the tournament, while Mohammad Azharuddin will get Rs 500,000.

Ajit Wadekar, the former India manager, has been named tournament referee.

The teams:

Pakistan: (from) Rameez Raja, Inzamam ul Haq, Aaqib Jaaved, Saeed Anwar, Shahid Afridi, Salim Malik, Mohammad Waseem, Azhar Mahmood, Moin Khan, Hasan Raja, Saqlain Mushtaq, Ejaz Ahmed, Shahid Nazeer or Salim Elahi. Manager: Mudassar Nazar.

New Zealand: (from) Stephen Fleming, Shayne O'Connor, Mathew Horne, Chris Harris, Andrew Penn, Adam Parore, Craig McMillan, Bryan Young, Dipak Patel, Daniel Vettori, Mark Greatbatch, Shane Thomson, B Pocock. Manager: Mark Plummer.