Indian to coach Brazilians in cricket

You help us in cricket and we will help you in soccer! This message was delivered by President Pratibha Patil after an agreement was reached between Brazil and BCCI to send a coach to train Brazilian cricketers.

You help us in cricket and we will help you in soccer!

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This was the message as President Pratibha Patil visited this soccer-obsessed, Latin American country as part of her 13-day, three-nation tour to Brazil, Mexico and Chile.

Under an understanding arrived between Brazil and India, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will soon send a coach to train the cricketers in Rio de Janerio.

"BCCI will soon be sending a coach as Brazil wants the status of a Test cricket playing nation," Indian Ambassador to Brazil Hardeep Singh Puri said in the Brazilian capital.

While a coach from India, which ranks number two in Test cricket in world, has been selected to train the Brazilians, search for a football coach for India was still on, he added.

"Football in this part of the world is highly professional and coaches charge a large amount. But something will be worked out shortly," Puri said.

Brazil became an ICC member in 2002 and its international debut came in 2006 when it participated in Division Three of the ICC Americas Championship in Suriname.

It lost all three games in the tournament and remains in Division Three in 2008.

India had signed a cultural agreement in 2006 with Brazil, which ranks Number 2 in soccer in FIFA rankings, under which the two countries would cooperate in promoting exchanges in the field of football and training of Indian players and coaches.

Meanwhile, Puri added, Union Information and Broadcasting minister P R Dasmunsi, also the president of All India Football Federation, was working closely for finding a coach for the Indian soccer team.