Indian news round-up

The President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, AC Muthiah said in New Delhi on Monday that the Board had still not accepted the resignation tendered by the former Indian skipper and the member of the Board of Directors of the National Cricket Academy (NCA), Sunil Gavaskar.

Speaking to reporters after the BCCI working committee meeting at the nation's capital, Muthiah said that he is yet to take a decision on this issue. Muthiah added that the replacement of Hanumant Singh, who also resigned from the NCA is yet to be decided. Gavaskar had sent his resignation to the BCCI following a difference of opinion with NCA Chairman Raj Singh Dungarpur while Hanumant Singh had cited reasons of ill-health.

On the appointment of an administrative manager for the Indian team during the Australian tour, Muthiah felt that since John Wright, the coach of the national team is a foreigner and may find it difficult to manage the administrative part of the tour, it would be better to have an Indian administrative manager.

Former Pakistan skipper Imran Khan said in Karachi on Monday that Australia's all round talent will see them win the forthcoming three Test and five ODI series against India.

Speaking to Agence France Presse, Imran said "Australians play with an attacking mindset and have allround abilities which make them favourites in India." He added "They have an allround bowling attack - their fast bowlers are excellent backed up with spin bowlers."

On Australia being rated as the all time greatest team, Imran disagreed and said "My all-time great side was the West Indies under Clive Lloyd who had a battery of match winning bowlers." Australia will under take the tour of India with a a record 15 Tests wins in a row under their belt.

The East Zone selection committee have brought in Orissa's P Jayachandra and Bihar's MS Dhoni as replacements for Bengal opener Nikhil Haldipur and Bihar's Rajiv Kumar in the 15-member East Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy matches against South Zone and West Zone.

East are slated to take on South Zone from January 26 to 28 at Agartala and then play West Zone at Rajkot from February 1 to 4. East Zone have so far collected five points from the two matches that they have played. They took the first innings lead against Central Zone but then lost to North Zone.

The team : Shiv Sundar Das (capt), Rashmi Ranjan Parida, P Jayachandra, Sanjay Raul, Debashish Mohanty (all Orissa), Utpal Chatterjee, Rohan Gavaskar, Deep Dasgupta, (Bengal), Zakaria Zuffri, Sukhwinder Singh, Javed Zaman, Ganesh Kumar (Assam), MS Dhoni, Mihir Diwakar (Bihar) and Mridul Gupta (Tripura).

Andhra's Ranji Trophy team opener Amit Pathak hit a brilliant 79-ball 117 while Kerala Ranji player Sreekumar Nair picked up 5 for 56 and then came in to blast a 71-ball 88 to help Indian Overseas Bank defeat Chemplast by six wickets to enter the semifinals of the PC Garmax Trophy limited overs tournament in Chennai on Monday.

IOB are slated to meet Central Excise while India Pistons take on SPIC in the semifinals on Wednesday. The final, which will be a day-night affair, will be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on January 26.

The results: Chemplast 280 for 8 lost to IOB 286 for 2; Indian Bank 230 lost to Central Excise 231 for 6; Pentasoft 177 lost to India Pistons 179 for 6; India Cements 221 for 9 lost to SPIC 225 for 6.