Mumbai: The cash-rich Indian Cricket Board will turn its attention towards schools and conduct an inter-schools tournament for under-16 players from next year, one of its top officials said here.

The BCCI is going to conduct inter-schools cricket from next year and all the associations have been told to conduct their own schools cricket to identify who will play in the zonal league to qualify for the inter-zonals, BCCI's Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty said at a function last night.

Shetty was attending a function to announce five players who were selected from a list of 20 under-17 boys after the Boost Cricket Cup coaching camp at Mumbai Cricket Association ground at Kandivli here. The selected players were awarded Rs 20,000 each.

The selected boys were: Sandeep Kaushik (all-rounder), Nitesh Rana (batsman), M Kamalesh (wicketkeeper-batsman), Shahnawaz Mirza (batsman) and Yatharth Tomar (bowler).

They were picked by former Test cricketer Mohinder Amarnath and former one-day player Surinder Khanna.

Khanna, a former wicketkeeper and hard-hitting batsman, advised the players who were present to make sure that they not only practised hard but also did it correctly by taking the cue from Australian and South African players.
Source : PTI