Former chief slams Canada board

Canada's plans to stage the 2012 Under-19 World Cup were thrown into uncertainty after the national board's former CEO, Atul Ahuja, said there are not enough workable pitches currently in the country. The claim was, however, immediately denied by Cricket Canada's vice president, Ravin Moorthy.

In a wide-ranging letter criticising the current regime Ahuja said: "The ICC had installed 10 turf wickets for the ICC Trophy in 2001. Currently, none of those are operational."

Yet Moorthy told Cricinfo that seven turf pitches were used last year - five for ICC matches, one facility in Toronto cricket club and a private ground used for warm-up matches - with three more due to be re-laid ahead of the coming summer. While the ICC stipulates that 12 grounds are needed to be able to host the tournament, Moorthy remains confident the board will meet the challenge.

"It is frustrating because we are making progress. We have a number of grounds that were recently playable on but we need to put behind all this internal bickering and look forward."

Among a host of other issues raised, Ahuja also claimed "the administration was unable to put in place a promised schools cricket program" due to the lack of a sponsor since Scotiabank withdraw their support last November.

Moorthy, however, was more upbeat. "We've taken the programme 81 schools this year, and it's still only March. That's almost 2000 kids who would probably have not come in contact with cricket otherwise."