Indian news round-up

The executive secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Sharad Diwadkar said in Mumbai on Saturday that three state cricket associations, including the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) have evinced interest in setting up the West Zone Cricket Academy on the lines of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore.

Speaking to Press Trust of India (PTI), Diwadkar said that the MCA is interested to set up the academy at the Wankhede Stadium while the Gujarat Cricket Association and the Maharashtra Cricket Association too are interested to set up the academy at Ahmedabad and Pune respectively.

Diwadkar said "The NCA vice-president G Agashe, committee members Polly Umrigar and Brijesh Patel and myself will inspect the facilities available in these centres from January 23 and by the second week of February we should be able to finalise one." He however added "MCA with the help of the Garware Club will provide all facilities required by the NCA. Mumbai being the nursery for Test cricketers, it will be a good idea to have the academy here."

Press trust of India (PTI) reported on Saturday that the International Cricket Council (ICC) observer and former Sri Lankan captain Ranjan Madugalle is to visit Indore on January 15 in order to inspect the Nehru Stadium.

Quoting a Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) official, PTI said that the visit gains significance in the view of the fact that on January 22 the detailed itenarary of the Australian tour of India is to be announced. The Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) observer Poly Umrigar too would visit Indore along with Madugalle.

PTI said that if Madugalle submits a favorable report, then Indore might get to host a match during the series against Australia. The source added that Umrigar was satisfied with the pitch conditions at the Nehru Stadium when he visited the venue the last time around.

The secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association and the Central Zone convener, Jyoti Bajpai said in Kanpur on Saturday that the Col CK Nayudu Trophy inter-zonal cricket tournament has been rescheduled and is to be played at Cuttack from January 19.

Bajpai while announcing the Central Zone team for the CK Nayudu Trophy also said that the three-day Vinoo Mankad Trophy match between the winners of CK Nayudu Trophy and Rest of India Under-19 team will also be played at Cuttack from January 31 to February 2.

The team: Anshul Kapoor (captain, UP) S Raza Ali, Surinder Singh, Manoj Srivastava (all Railways), Alind Naidu, Amit Deshpande, CS Atram, Harshal Shitoot (all Vidarbha), Mohnish Misra, Sachin Dholpure, Maninder Singh, OP Yadav, Jitender Likhar (all MP), Dishant Yagnik, Naresh Gahlot (both Rajasthan).

The joint secretary of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA), Ratnakar Shetty said in Mumbai on Saturday that Rakesh Kanojia will lead a 15- member MCA team which will participate in the Pepsi Inter-City Youth Cricket Series to be held at Chennai from January 22.

The team: Rakesh Kanojia (capt), Sahil Kukreja, Kinjal Patel, Sanket Bhaye, Shaunak Gupte, Harvinder Singh, Girish Vaswani (wk), Rohan Sadarjoshi, Nishit Dhulap, Gautam Yadav, Ait Yadav, Arif Sunsara, Shahid Sheikh, Sagar Dumbre and Ninad Borkar.