Indian News round-up

Indian skipper sourav ganguly mooted a case for best of three finals in one-day competitions after losing to the west indies in the cocacola cup final on saturday.

"It is a bit harsh because you play four league games and win all and then lose the one-off final. I have seen this happen to a number of sides. It happened to us in the icc knockout mini world cup in nairobi where we beat two top teams and then lost to new zealand" ganguly said in harare, according to pti.

Coach john wright defended sachin tendulkar who fell for a fourth ball duck. "Sachin never throws his wicket, he has played magnificently. He selected a ball which was a bit high and quicker too and it happens. We can't continually rely on sachin tendulkar to win us games. It has to be a collective effort. The greatest thing about tendulkar is that he is his hardest critic."

Wright sought to put the blame on the bowlers who conceded 290 runs. "It does become a difficult game when your three medium pacers go for over six per over. We were just not efficient and accurate enough with the ball."

West indies skipper expressed happiness at the effort of his batsmen. "We were certainly looking for a 250 plus total but 290 was a really good score and it put india under pressure." hooper added that the dismissal of both indian openers was the key that opened the door of west indies' triumph. "In the two games we played, we never really got to the indian middle (order). The key obviously in this game were sachin and ganguly. We got rid of them quickly and we realised we had a chance."

The indian cricket board has no plans to constitute a panel of doctors to check players feigning injuries or teams fielding over aged players in junior tourneys but the respective state associations will be penalised if such a case was found true, according to the bcci secretary jaywant lele.

"We believe what the concerned player is saying. How can any other doctor challenge the certificate issued by some other doctor?" lele asked. "The players produce certificates and the board believes them," he said in jaipur on saturday.

Lele said the working committee will decide upon the mode and nature of penalising senior cricketers who stay away from domestic cricket but added that most of them who did not play domestic cricket last season had sought the board's permission. "We are trying to have all the star cricketers play in domestic matches this season," lele said.

A team under the tutelage of bishen bedi left for england on sunday for a one month long tour during which they will play with minor county sides, reported pti. The team is a blend of youth and experience, comprising test players like rahul sanghvi, vijay dahiya and sunil joshi, ranji players like up's arun pande and assam's mritunjoy gohain, and up-and-coming youngsters like randeep singh and 12-year-old sumit dhiman, the youngest member of the team.

"We want to show the firangs what natural talent is," said bedi referring to the prodigious dhiman. Bedi was speaking at a dinner he hosted in new delhi on saturday where young players talked about how they had benefited under his expert guidance in a just-concluded sixweek training camp. "If earlier i was on the ground, then today i feel myself on the sky - that is the difference this camp has made to me," said andhra pradesh's t anand, a key all-rounder in the team.

"Indians are now becoming as mentally strong as anybody else in the world. This is mainly because training camps nowadays, like the one we have just attended, also cover personality which was not the case earlier. The very motto of paaji's training camp is 'believe in yourself", he added.