Indian news round-up

The BCCI vice-president CK Khanna on Wednesday sent a proposal to the board president AC Muthiah for organising an additional one-day tie between India and Australia. The proceeds of the game will go to the victims of the earthquake in Gujarat.

In his letter, Khanna has written that the proceeds from the match, in the form of sponsorship, TV rights money, sale of tickets and advertising, could be donated to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. Khanna also suggested that the board could set up a special committee for this purpose.

Khanna said "Since it is for a noble cause, the Australian Cricket Board would not refuse to allow their team to participate in the match," adding that the DDCA would be happy if it is allotted the tie. An earlier report from Sydney stated that the Australian captain Steve Waugh had agreed to play in an exhibition match. The report added that the venue which was yet to be finalised could be either in India or in Australia.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee on Tuesday criticised the Central Government for the non inclusion of the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly in the list of this year's Padma Shri award recipients.

Speaking to Press Trust of India (PTI), the Chief Minister described the decision as 'highly unjust'. He expressed surprise over the omission since the Centre had taken Ganguly's consent in advance according to normal practice for selecting candidates for the prestigious award.

Bhattacharjee said, "I had no interaction with Ganguly on the issue. But I know Ganguly's consent was taken from his residence after the list was finalised."

The vice-chancellor of Mumbai University, Bhelchandra Mungekar said in Mumbai on Tuesday that the university would play hosts to the annual Inter Zonal universities championship for the Vizzy Trophy from February 2 to 9.

Speaking to reporters, Mungekar said that the tournament is to be played on a knock out basis between the teams from the four zones. The four teams are to play each other in three day matches from February 2 to 4. While North Zone take on East Zone, West Zone play South Zone. The four day final between the two winners would be played from February 6 to 9.

Hyderabad played hosts last year when South Zone were crowned champions. South Zone beat North Zone in the final by virtue of the first innings lead.

The Association for Cricket for the Blind and the Karnataka Cricket Association for the Blind are to organise the South Zone league of the All India National tournament from February 14 to 16 at Belgaum.

The four South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra will compete in the three day tournament. The winners of the South Zone league will qualify to play in the National tournament to be held in Mumbai.

A splendid all round performance by the Mumbai team helped them defeat Delhi by 34 runs to lift the Pepsi Under-16 Inter City Youth Tournament at the SPIC-YMCA ground in Chennai on Wednesday.

Opting to bat, Mumbai mustered 146 in 40 overs. The innings was held together by a fine 54 by R Kanojia while G Vaswani (18), S Bhaye (15) and R Sadar Joshi (20) chipped in with useful contributions. Pradeep Maan (3 for 19) was the most successful bowler. In reply, Delhi faltered right at the start and lost three wickets for 28. Despite some fight by the late order batsmen, notably Narinder Singh (28), Delhi finished some way behind their target.

Rakesh Kanojia was adjudged the man of the match while Mayank Tehlan was voted the best batsman of the tourney. The best bowler was Ashutosh Sharma. Arif Sunasara was adjudged the best allrounder. The chief guests, Tamil Nadu Cricket Association secretary Ashok Kumbhat and Indian coach John Wright gave away the prizes.

Earlier, in the semifinal on Tuesday, Delhi defeated Bangalore by 85 runs. Delhi scored 213 for six in 40 overs while Bangalore were all out for 128 in 33.2 overs. In the other semifinal, Mumbai scored 162 for nine in 40 overs and Chennai had replied with 18 for one off 6.4 overs when the match was stopped due to security reasons in connection with the visit of Prime Minister AB Vajpayee to the city. Mumbai won the match on the spin of the coin.