Jaipur could host first India-SA ODI

The Indian board is yet to finalise the schedule for the home series against South Africa early next year but has decided on Jaipur as the venue most likely to host the tour's first ODI. A decision is also yet to be taken on whether the series will include Tests, as India have sought.

Lalit Modi, chairman of the board's tours and fixtures panel, said the final schedule will be worked out at a later date - it was held up by the absence of some members at the board's working committee meeting today.

Jaipur, he said, was picked because it had missed out during the Australia series earlier this year. That match was shifted to Vadodara due to a dispute at the Rajasthan Cricket Association between Modi and Sanjay Joshi, the then president. "As chairman of the BCCI's tours and fixtures committee I'm going to recommend to the first ODI should be allotted to Jaipur because they had missed their term last time. In principle we have decided to give it to them," Modi said.

It was also decided that Ahmedabad will host the first four Rajasthan Royals games in the next IPL, with Jaipur allotted the final three. "The last three games will happen in Jaipur, as we have recommended some upgrading to be done. The first four will happen in Ahmedabad as they have already done a lot (of preparations)," Modi said. The arrangement was only for 2010, with Jaipur restored as the host venue for the 2011 edition.

But barring that, the schedule as well as the venues for the other planned fixtures weren't confirmed. "We are just fixing the schedule," Modi said after the two-hour meeting at the Cricket Centre in Mumbai. "Unfortunately all the members were not present so the committee would be meeting in the next ten days to finalise the schedule," he said.

Last week the BCCI had sent a revised itinerary to Cricket South Africa requesting to play two Tests and three ODIs instead of the originally planned five-match ODI series. CSA is yet to approve the new schedule, though Gerald Majola, the South African board's chief had given an in-principle nod.

Modi also took the opportunity to make a public show of bonding with CP Joshi, the newly-elected RCA president, but said his gesture should not be read as a "compromise". Earlier this month Joshi had defeated Modi in an acrimonious tussle to the RCA president's post, winning the elections 19-13. Joshi was attending his first board meeting and cordially nodded to Modi's suggestions.