India Seniors will be led by Sourav Ganguly while India A and India B teams will be led by Rahul David and Sachin Tendulkar respectively. The matches will be held from February 12-15 in Chennai. The teams for the triangular Challenger Trophy one-day domestic tournament was also announced. India Seniors will be led by Sourav Ganguly while India A and India B teams will be led by Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar respectively.
Hyderabad's veteran left-arm spinner Venkatapathy Raju has been included in the list of 25 probables for the three Test home series against Australia. Raju last played international cricket when Australia toured India last in 1998. The probables include, Debashis Mohanty, Murali Kartik, Rahul Sanghvi, Sarandeep Singh, WD Balaji Rao, Dinesh Mongia, including Jammu & Kashmir's left arm pace bowler Surinder Singh among others. Sourav Ganguly and John Wright attended the selection committee meeting as well.
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Baroda will not host the three-day Australian tour opener scheduled from February 17-19. Panic in the region of Gujarat due to the earthquake has forced this change. The match will now be shifted either to Hyderabad or Nagpur.
Meanwhile the dates and venues of the one-day matches against England Under-19 also had to be changed because of the devastation caused in the western region of India, where some of the matches were scheduled.
| 1st one-dayer |
2 February |
Hyderabad (originally Baroda) |
| 2nd one-dayer |
4 February |
Vijayawada (originally Ahmedabad) |
| 3rd one-dayer |
6 February |
Hyderabad (originally Rajkot) |
The Duleep Trophy tie which to be played at Rajkot between East Zone and West Zone from 1-4 February, has also been shifted from Rajkot to Pune.
Punjab's 31-year old opener Vikram Rathour has been included in the India B team for the Challenger trophy as a wicketkeeper. Rathour who made his Ranji debut as a wicket-keeper in 1988 has not kept wickets since last ten years. Chairman of selectors Chandu Borde said, "we thought of experimenting with the idea as we are in search of keepers who can bat well".
Ajay Ratra has been named skipper of the India Under-19 team for the forthcoming three match one-day series against the visiting England Under-19 team. The squad for ODIs: Ajay Ratra (captain), Vinayak Mane, Gautham Gambhir, S Vidyut, Mulewa Dharmichand, Nitin Aggarwal, Sidharth Trivedi, Alind Naidu, Amit Mishra, Arindam Das, Maninder Singh, Manvinder Bisla, Arjun Yadav and Amit Deshpande.
The Gujarat under-22 lads were in Mumbai playing their West Zone league tie of the under-22 tournament when the earthquake struck their home. After frantic phone calls to people back home it was found that the families of most of the boys were safe. Kirat Damani left Mumbai immediately on hearing his mother had been seriously injured. One of the reserve players Vipul Patel also left when he learnt that he had lost his aunt. Meanwhile it was reported that the vice-captain of the Gujarat senior team lost his wife and four-year old daughter. He was unhurt as he was on his way to the barber shop when the earthquake struck.
Pakistan Board President General Tauqir Zia has warned the players that those making trouble over the prize money issue would be sacked. Zia was reacting to media reports that a row had surfaced between the players and coach Javed Miandad.
Aptly matching to the latest developments in technology into info-tech sector the Pakistan Cricket board has launched a new analytical software to evaluate player's skills and other match proceedings. Ejaz Sadhu who is PhD in software engineering from France and is currently working in Karachi has developed the software. The software includes the facility to record ball-to-ball analysis, strokes played, bowler's length variations. Live video feeds of the match can be obtained frame by frame. It will be an essential part of the Pakistan strategy formulations on their forthcoming tour of New Zealand.
Australia's Nine Network had to apologise to its viewers over the foul abuse dished out to Zimbabwe batsman Stuart Carlisle by Shane Warne after the former had hit him for two sixes. The stump microphone picked up his remarks and broadcast it live and the station received numerous calls from irate viewers who called in to protest. The Channel-Nine-sport director said the incident was "unfortunate", and was sorry that the comment had got on air.
Former Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin launched a court challenge on Monday to the life ban imposed on him by the BCCI. Azhar filed a petition at a civil court in Hyderabad, naming his respondents as the BCCI, its president AC Muthiah, and BCCI's vigilance commissioner K Madhavan. The petition challenges the irregularities in the match-fixing inquiry conducted by Mr Madhavan.
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The Women's Cricket Association of India has done away with its five-member selection committee comprising members from each of the five zones and introduced a three-member national body of former women cricketers. The WCAI, at its annual general meeting in Delhi on Sunday, nominated a national committee, which will be headed by Sreerupa Bose. Shanta Rangaswamy and Diana Eduljee are the other members of the committee, which will have a two-year term, the WCAI said in a statement. "Having five selectors from each zone was creating problems as each selector gave preference to the players from that particular zone," the statement said, adding that henceforth the national selection committee and junior selection committee will be nominated by the General House. Shubhangi Kulkarni will head the junior selection committee. Sandhya Aggarwal and Preeti Manohar are its other members.
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The Nottinghamshire Cricket Association, the body responsible for running the county's recreational club game for more than a century, has been wound up. Members of the association voted at a special meeting to further integrate the game in the county by joining forces with the Nottinghamshire Cricket Board. Prior to the decision the two organisations had run in parallel with separate committees but now the association's recreational duties will be carried out by a newly formed committee of the NCB called the Recreational Council. Ron Lafbery, NCA Secretary for the last 27 of its 105-year history, has been elected secretary of the new council.
The Australian all-rounder Tom Moody will be Worcestershire's new director of cricket on a three-year contract following the resignation of former England batsman Bill Athey. The Western Australian captain, who also led the county, was their overseas player for nine years before was he replaced by fellow Australian pace bowler Glenn McGrath last season.
In a recent press release the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) seeks a bright, enthusiastic individual with excellent communication skills to perform basic PR duties in a junior role. The successful applicant will provide administrative back up for existing staff, and will be encouraged to become an involved member of the PR team, thinking pro-actively and developing ideas. Working knowledge of Windows 98, Microsoft Word and Access is essential; an understanding of cricket is desirable. Please apply in writing with CV to the Communications Officer, MCC, Lord's Ground, London NW8 8QN by 2 February 2001.
Scores at a glance…
3rd Un-official Test (3rd day):
At Hyderabad (India U-19 v England U-19)
England U-19:
316 (IR Bell 46, GJ Pratt 114, GJ Muchall 36; N Agarwal 4-50, A Mishra 4-96) & 58-0 (N Peng 37 not out)
IndiaU-19:
492 (G Gambhir 65, V Mane 135, A Ratra 141, S Vidyut 38, M Dharmichand 33; J Bishop 5-64, R Ferley 3-139)
Yesterday's News
Compiled by: Mohandas Menon
