British investigators are to question about 23 prostitutes who performed sexual favours for famous players to fix matches in Australia. The prostitutes include a doctor, a nurse, a travel agent and a television presenter. Reportedly one was a Pakistani and one was a Chinese. According to former Pakistan cricketer Qasim Omar who played in the 1980's, they were used by illegal bookmakers to lure top cricketer into throwing games or as a reward for underperformance on the field. The ICC team led by Sir Paul Condon will be flying to Australia with a list of the 23 names seeking to question them. The team will also interview Qasim Omar after returning from Australia.

The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) in the meanwhile announced that it had received advice from the ICC Anti-Corruption Unit that its investigation into the claims made by former Pakistani player Qasim Omar reported in the media today, does not involve any current or former Australian player. ACB Chief Executive, Malcolm Speed, said that the Anti-Corruption Unit has advised that the claims related to the visiting sides and not to the Australian team. "The ICC Anti-Corruption Unit has confirmed to the ACB that this investigation is focusing on foreign players and officials. Two members of the Unit have confirmed that no current or former Australian players or official is under investigation," said Mr Speed. It is understood that the claims raised by Omar that were initially made public some time ago relate to the period 1984 - 1987. Mr Speed said that the most concerning issue raised by the allegations for the ACB was the suggestion that an Australian bookmaker was involved in the activity. "Clearly the ACB would be very interested to know if this person exists. If he does and he is still working as a bookmaker we want to be able to ensure that he no longer has anything to do with the game of cricket."

Mumbai will host the first Test against Australia in February. S Venkataraghavan will be the home umpire in this Test The following is the schedule of matches

1st Test Mumbai 27 Feb - 3 March
2nd Test Chennai 11-15 March
3rd Test Kolkata 18-22 March
1st ODI Bangalore 25 March
2nd ODI Pune 28 March
3rd ODI Indore 31 March
4th ODI Vizag 3 April
5th ODI Goa 5 April


Mumbai will host the first Test against Australia in February. S Venkataraghavan will be the home umpire in this Test, while AV Jayaprakash and SK Bansal will be other Indian umpires who will officiating in the next two Tests. West Indian Cammie Smith will be the match referee for the series.

Shane Warne has said that he would like to play county cricket again for Hampshire next year. Warne was Hampshire's top wicket-taker in last year's county championships

The Asia Cup scheduled to be held in Karachi in April this year has been deferred by a year. The Asian Cricket Council has decided to replace the event with the Asian Test Championships to be held between September to January next year. The ACC Secretary Zakir Hussain said the Asia Cup will be held in Pakistan in April next year in which India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, UAE & Hong Kong will participate. He asserted that the postponement of the Asia Cup had nothing to do with the cricketing relations of Pakistan and India.

Former Pakistan skipper Salim Malik said that he had filed a case in the Lahore high Court against the ban imposed on him by the Pakistan Cricket Board. He said he was disappointed with the life ban. "I don't like to be bracketed with Hansie Cronje and Mohammad Azharuddin because they have confessed to taking money from the book makers. I have made no such confession because I have never taken any money from anyone, so why a life ban on me?" Malik said he was pained by the stories in the media and was planning to migrate to Canada.

A Jeddah-based English daily quoted Pakistani fast bowler Wasim Akram has said that he is raring to go against India in the Sharjah Tournament to be held in April. He denied any plans to retire immediately from international cricket. "I am looking forward to play the Indians as I has been some time since we played them"

Former Test opening batsman Alimuddin is upset that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had not named after him one of the National Stadium's enclosures in recognition of his contributions to Pakistan cricket. The England-based Alimuddin, who is here on a private visit, has the distinction of scoring the first Test century at the National Stadium when he made an unbeaten 103 against India in 1954-55. Coincidentally, his only other Test hundred was also made here. On that occasion, he scored 109 against England in 1961-62. "How come the authorities forgot to name an enclosure after me since I had the honour of scoring the first hundred here," said the 70-year- old cricketer, who scored 1091 runs in 25 Tests between 1954 and 1962.

Former India Test opener Chetan Chauhan is likely to be appointed manager for the home series (3 Tests & 5 ODI's) against Australia. He may take charge from the beginning of the conditioning camp scheduled to be held in Chennai next month. The final decision will be taken at the working committee meeting to be held in Delhi. Apart from daily logistic problems like arranging for facilities, travel, etc, he will also act as a translator between the players and coach John Wright. It is understood that some players in the national side had problems understanding Wrights accent during the home series against Zimbabwe.

Former Indian skipper Bishan Singh Bedi got bail in a defamation suit filed by Punjab Cricket Association secretary MP Pandove. Bedi who appeared before a Patiala court in person furnished a bail bond of Rs. 10,000 and a surety for the same amount. Pandove had filed a defamation suit against Bedi for an article written by the legendary spinner in a newspaper column.

3rd Test: South Africa vs Sri Lanka at Centurion (2nd day)
South Africa: 378 (D Cullinan 48, ND Mckenzie 103, M Boucher 38, S Pollock 111; N Zoysa 4-76)
Sri Lanka: 119 (RS Kaluwitharana 32; M Ntini 4-39) & 184-3 (K Sangakkara 64 not out, RP Arnold 71)
Sri Lanka was made to follow-on

Under-19 Test:
2nd Test: India U-19 v England U-19 at Chennai (2nd day)
England U-19: 399 (N Peng 132, IR Bell 61, GJ Pratt 40, GJ Muchall 49, CT Tremlett 61)
India U-19: 122-4 (I Ganda 44 not out, YG Rao 30; AC McGarry 3-28)

Duleep Trophy:
West Zone vs South Zone at Surat (4th and final day)
West Zone: 376 (Wasim Jaffer 49, HH Kanitkar 95, JJ Martin 89, VG Kambli 56; D Ganesh 4-81, SB Joshi 3-78) & 330-6 (CC Williams 43, NR Mongia 60, JJ Martin 47, VG Kambli 66, AV Kale 52; SB Joshi 3-62)
South Zone: 595-4 decl. (S Sriram 38, S Ramesh 99, VVS Laxman 217, RS Dravid 188)
Match Drawn

After six matches North Zone (18 points in 3 matches lead the points table followed by West Zone (9 pts in 3 matches), South and Central Zones (with 8 points each in two matches) and East Zone (5 points in two matches)

Ranji Trophy (Central Zone League):
At Nagpur (4th and final day):
Rajasthan: 380 (V Saxena 117, A Jain 37, GK Khoda 32, P Krishnakumar 36, Sanjeev Sharma 33, R Jhalani 63; CE Atram 3-157, PV Gandhe 4-58) & 234-7 decl (N Doru 71, R Kanwat 34, A Jain 38, AM Piprode 3-65, PV Gandhe 3-85).
Vidarbha: 306 (A Deshpande 128, AS Manohar 30, RS Paradkar 56, AM Dave 3-75, L Jain 3-36) & 220-2 (A Despande 156 not out, S Harbade 42)
Points: Rajasthan 5 pts, Vidarbha 3 pts.

At Kanpur (4th and final day):
Uttar Praesh: 143 (Jyoti P Yadav 33; Jai Prakash Yadav 4-41, DS Bundela 6-37) & 375-9 decl. (Jyoti P Yadav 35, Rizwan Shamshad 153, MS Mudgal 55; DS Dundela 5-102)
Madhya Pradesh: 283 (AR Khuraisya 65, DS Bundela 39, HS Sodhi 57, N Patwardhan 45; S Srivastava 3-84, AW Zaidi 4-89) & 158-7 (Jai Prakash Yadav 36, CS Pandit 47 not out; AW Zaidi 3-38)
Points: Madhya Pradesh 5 pts, Uttar Pradesh 3 pts.
Rajasthan (23 points), Railways (21) and Madhya Pradesh (19) qualify to the knockout stage. Uttar Pradesh and Vidarbha fail to qualify.

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)

The lineup for the the pre-quarter final matches in the Ranji knockout are as follows:
Punjab v Rajasthan
Assam v Karnataka
Maharashtra v Railways
Delhi v Tamil Nadu
Bengal v Baroda
Orissa v Jammu & Kashmir
Madhya Pradesh v Hyderabad
Holders Mumbai receive a bye

Andhra batsman Amit Pathak (558 runs) and Delhi's left-arm pace bowler Ashish Nehra (36 wickets) are the top run-getters and wicket-takers in the Ranji Trophy (at the end of the League phase) during this season. Nehra incidentally with 14 wickets in the Duleep Trophy has exactly 50 wickets to his credit this season.

Did you know that...
The third wicket partnership of 168 between Sri Lankans Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jaywardene against South Africa in the recent Test match at Durban represented 77.78% of their team's total of 216 runs. This was the most dominant partnership by a pair in Test history. They bettered the previous best of 76.54% by Australians Alick Bannerman and Percy McDonnell against England at Sydney - 118 years ago - in March 1882. The pair had put on 199 runs for the fourth wicket out of Australia's total of 260.

Yesterday's News

Compiled by: Mohandas Menon