The BCCI vice-president and disciplinary committee member Kamal Morarka did not attend the crucial meeting at Chennai where former president IS Bindra was questioned. It is believed that Bindra objected to Morarka's presence. The reason cited by Bindra was that Morarka too went to the media on the issue of match fixing. Morarka had addressed the press twice in Mumbai and and Delhi along with Purushotam Rungta and Jyoti Bajpai respectively and had strongly refuted all Bindra's charges.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has come under fire for preparing a poor pitch for a national tournament at Karachi. A senior television producer who visited the venue with a team of engineers said, "this is unacceptable, its not possible to distinguish between the pitch and the rest of the ground". He also had objection to the positioning of the pitch, as it was difficult to cover the pitch from a proper angle. The match referee Ehteshamuddin's attention was called to the amount of grass on the pitch. The curator was then asked to cut the grass to acceptable limits.

The Assam Cricket association has lodged a protest with the BCCI on the latter's move to have a new rotation policy just before the India-Australia series. Their contention being that if the new rotation policy was used Assam along with some other states would be deprived of hosting a match in the forthcoming series. As per the old rotation policy they are due for a match as they were in the fourth position in the list, while in the new list prepared by the BCCI they stand at number twelve.

The speculation is mounting over the return of Carl Hooper to lead the West Indies, during the forthcoming tour of South Africa to the Caribbean. Hooper has not played international cricket since retiring two years ago when he made a sudden departure from the side during a one-day series against Australia. He may replace the current captain Jimmy Adams.

Indian team coach John Wright said that his role as coach was to prepare a balanced side to face challenges from the international cricket teams. He said he had no magic formula, but with his vast experience he hoped to groom young cricketers and make them competent. Wright who is at Surat watching the West Zone-South Zone Duleep Trophy tie, said that a search is on for a spinner who could take Kumble's place against Australia.

Former Zimbabwe batsman Murray Goodwin who made a record breaking 167 for Western Australia two days ago, has still not decided about rejoining his former teammates Zimbabwe, who are currently playing the Carlton series in Australia. Goodwin who has played 19 Tests decided to quit Zimbabwe eight months ago to make a career in Australia. "It's entirely up to him" said Babu Meman, when asked if Goodwin would be asked to assist the team for the rest of the tour. "It was Murray's decision to leave. If he makes an approach then we will talk to him."

The United Cricket Board of South Africa has honored six South African cricketers and two officials for their achievements. The players honoured include Alan Donald, Gary Kirsten, Darryl Cullinan, Jonty Rhodes, Mark Boucher and Shaun Pollock. The officials include manager Goolam Rajah and physiotherapist Craig Smith. All recipients were presented awards at a function at Johannesburg.

Sachin Tendulkar will help the Maharashtra Government to boost its polio vaccination campaign. He along with Sunil Gavaskar and Vinod Kambli, would be moving in their respective residential colonies to take children for polio vaccination arranged at various points.

3rd Test: South Africa vs Sri Lanka at Centurion (1st day)
South Africa: 375-9 (D Cullinan 48, ND Mckenzie 103, M Boucher 38, S Pollock 111; N Zoysa 4-76)

Under-19 Test: India v England (2nd Test) at Chennai (1st day)
England 286-3 (N Peng 132, IR Bell 61, GJ Pratt 40)

Ranji Trophy (Central Zone League):
At Nagpur (2nd day):
Rajasthan 380 (V Saxena 117, R Jhalani 63; PV Gandhe 4-58)
Vidarbha 189-2 (A Deshpande 114 not out)

Duleep Trophy:
West Zone vs South Zone at Surat (3rd day)
Rahul David and VVS Laxman put on a record 409 run partnership for the third wicket.
West Zone: 376 (Wasim Jaffer 40, HH Kanitkar 95, JJ Martin 89, V Kambli 54; D Ganesh 4-81, Sunil Joshi 3-65) & 64-1 (CC Williams 43).
South Zone: 595-4 decl (S Sriram 38, S Ramesh 99, VVS Laxman 217, Rahul David 188)

North Zone vs East Zone at Guwahati (3rd day)
Fancied North Zone crushed East Zone by 237 runs. North Zone now lead the points table with 18 points in three matches.
North Zone: 206 & 268 (Yuvraj Singh 77, Vijay Dahiya 70, Sukhvinder Singh 42; D Mohanty 4-82, Sukhvinder Singh 3-56, Sanjay Raul 3-28) East Zone: 81 (RR Parida 28; A Nehra 7-14 in 14 overs) & 156 (A Nehra 3-86, Rahul Sanghvi 4-17).
Ranji Trophy (Central Zone League) At Nagpur (3rd day):
Rajasthan 380 (V Saxena 117, R Jhalani 63; PV Gandhe 4-58) & 132-2 (N Doru 54, RJ Kanwat 34)
Vidarbha 306 (A Deshpande 128, RS Paradkar 56; AM Dave 3-75, L Jain 3-36)

At Kanpur (3rd day):
Uttar Pradesh 143 (DS Bundela 6-37, Jai Prakash Yadav 4-41) & 296-6 (Jyoti Yadav 35, Rizwan Shamshad 117 not out, MS Mudgal 55; DS Bundela 5-81)
Madhya Pradesh 283 (AR Khurasiya 65, HS Sodhi 57; AW Zaidi 4-89)

Joke of the day…..
A Greek spectator was watching cricket for the first time and trying to understand the game. An Englishman who was sitting next to him asked, "So, what do you think of this great game?" The Greek replied, "Its all English to me!"

Yesterday's News

Compiled by: Mohandas Menon