Indian news round-up

A cricket academy to be run by the Chandigarh Cricket Association under the aegis of the Punjab Cricket Association will start functioning from July 15 at the DAV Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh. It will be equipped with all modern facilities. Twenty players in the age group of 14 to 16 have been shortlisted for the academy. The PCA will provide cricket balls, nets and power-driven grass-cutting machines to the academy, said Mohinder Singh, secretary of the CCA.

Ravinder Talwar, principal of the school, said their school had already produced renowned cricketers such as Kapil Dev, Ashok Malhotra and Chetan Sharma along with many national-level cricketers. It was their aim to continue to produce cricketers of similar stature and he said this was a step in that direction taken by the CCA and the PCA. He said the Sports Authority of India cricket coach Sukhinder Bawa, posted at the DAVCC, had given good results and Test star Yuvraj Singh and national player Gaurav Gupta were some examples.

The players selected are Sunny Kassal, Uday Kaul, Sidharth Vishal, Abhishek, Amanjeet Singh, Gaurav, Samarjit Singh, Narinder, Gaurav Chopra, Gurkirat Singh, Sumit, Prashant, Karanveer, Sukhjinder, Vijay, Aseem Gupta, Varun Khanna, Naresh and Saurav Singh.

Diwakar Vasu and Ganesh Kumar shone as Chemplast won the YSCA Trophy limited overs cricket tournament defeating holders India Cements at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on Sunday. Chemplast regained the title after ten years.

Batting first, Chemplast scored 134 for eight in 30 overs. Ganesh Kumar top scored with 34 while Vasu chipped in a valuable 23. Kerala Ranji player Sunil Oasis was the most successful bowler taking for four 32. In reply, India Cements, in their 30 overs could not go beyond 121 for eight. Tamil Nadu Ranji player S Sharath top scored with 30 while Oasis (20) and George John (21) chipped in. But their efforts went in vain against the combined efforts of Ganesh Kumar (2 for 20), Vasu (2 for 37) and Satish (2 for 19).

Former Indian wicketkeeper Bharath Reddy distributed the prizes. The following were given special prizes: Best batsman: Vikram Kumar (Chemplast), Best bowler: D Vasu (Chemplast). Man of the match: SR Ganesh Kumar (Chemplast). Player of the tournament: S Suresh (India Cements).

AC Muthiah and Ashok Kumbhat were re-elected president and secretary of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association at the annual general meeting of the association in Chennai on Sunday. While Muthiah was elected unopposed, Kumbhat won re-election for a seventh term by defeating his nearest rival AS Venkateswaran by a margin of 95 votes. While Kumbhat polled 132 votes, Venkateswaran tallied 37 votes.

SE Sankar Rao was re-elected joint secretary. He defeated S Kesavan by 160 votes to 23. CR Vijayaraghavan was re-elected treasurer defeating G Srinivasan by 128 votes to 54. KC Sampath Kumar won another term as assistant secretary unopposed.

The following were other office bearers elected: Vice presidents: A Vellayan, KM Mammen, N Venkatramani and VA Parthasarathy. Executive committee: KS Viswanathan, G Natarajan, Victor Fernandez, L Sivaramakrishnan, D Sivanandam. K Murali, PP Swathy, VP Narasimhan and GC Dangi.

The Association of Cricket Umpires of Hyderabad held its Annual General Meeting in the city on Saturday and elected the following office bearers and council members for 2001-2003.

President: VS Rajan. Vice President: O Krishna. Secretary: NT Seshadri. Jt. Secretary: C Shamshuddin Treasurer: R Parthasarathy. Council Members: Amresh C Roy, Syed Saleem, R Kameshwara Rao, R Vijay Kumar and P Chandra Sekhar.