In a sudden turn-around in its stand, the National Cricket Academy (NCA) on Friday decided not to include former Test player Gursharan Singh after naming him as the fifth coach for its North Zone Academy which started functioning in New Delhi on May 1.

After the committee meeting in Mumbai, NCA chairman Raj Singh Dungarpur told reporters the decision was unanimous and Gursharan Singh would not be permitted to coach the boys in the NZCA.

"I put the proposal about the inclusion of fifth coach during the meeting but the committee overruled it as only NCA has the powers to choose the coaches. We have chosen former test players Yashpal Sharma as the main coach and Chetan Sharma, Surinder Khanna and former Ranji player Rajinder Amarnath as coaches", he added.

Not in the original list of four, the former Punjab and Delhi batsman's name was included apparently after intervention by some of the zonal officials and that of Rajinder Amarnath deleted. But with the youngest son of Lala Amarnath going public with his protest, his name got back into the list and that of Gursharan Singh dropped.

On the first day of the North Zone Academy, Gursharan Singh, who runs his own Academy in South Delhi, was a mere spectator watching the activities from the sidelines. However, by the second day, his name was included as the fifth coach and NCA Chairman Raj Singh Dungarpur, during his visit in New Delhi on Wednesday reportedly said Gursharan Singh's name had been left out inadvertently.

This meant that North Zone NCA had five coaches against four for all other zones. But the decision today brought the whole issue back to square one.

Dungarpur also said an Inter-Academy one-day tournament, named after a distinguished coach (to be decided later), would be held from this year. It would also be a criteria to select the Indian under-19 team for the World Cup at New Zealand in January next. The Indians are the World champions in under-19 category.

It was also decided in the meeting that the under-19 team would go to New Zealand ten days before the tournament and play at least three practice matches, he said.

The meeting was attended by former Test stars Sunil Gavaskar, Polly Umrigar, NCA vice chairman DC Agashe, Mumbai Cricket Association joint secretary Ratnakar Shetty, SK Nair and Kishore Rungta, Cricket Board's former and current treasurer respectively, NCA Director (administration) Brijesh Patel and BCCI secretary JY Lele.

© CricInfo