Indian news round-up

Congress parliamentary party deputy leader Madhavrao Scindia on Sunday hoped that suspended cricketing ties between India and Pakistan would be restored after the summit between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

Talking to reporters at Indore airport, Scindia, a former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, criticised the BJP-led NDA government for snapping cricket ties with Pakistan. "Since the NDA has a history of taking u-turns from its earlier positions, there are chances of normalisation of relations in this field," he said.

"Mutual exchanges in the arena of sports, culture and education, among other fields, has the potential of cementing ties between the two countries," the Congress leader said. "Even the Prime Minister had two months ago stated that there will not be any talks with the Pakistan government until it stopped abetting cross border terrorism. But suddenly he has extended an invitation to Musharraf and therefore on the issue of cricket also the government will take a u-turn," Scindia added.

Four talented trainees from the National Cricket Academy, Deepak Choughule, Vinayak Mane, Parthiv Patel and Arindham Das have returned richer by their coaching experience at the Commonwealth Bank Australian Cricket Academy at Adelaide.

Three of the players - Deepak, Vinayak and Parthiv - were selected under the aegis of the Gavasar-Border Foundation scholarship while Arindham's trip was sponsored by the Cricket Association of Bengal. The traines were at the Australian Academy from June 4 to July 14.

The four unanimously agreed that the trip was a great exposure and the blend of strenuous physical fitness sessions and technical skills would stand them in good stead. In addition they had the benefit of listening to former Australian captain Ian Chappell who spoke to them on captaincy, umpiring and various other aspects of the game. "We learnt a lot," the quartet echoed.

Last year Sridharan Sriram, Md Kaif and Shiv Sundar Das had been sent under the Gavaskar-Border scholarship to Adelaide for a similar stint.

The month long coaching camp at the Assam Cricket Academy which began at Guwahati on June 17, concluded on July 15. At a simple function, distinguished guests like Pankaj Bora, MLA, Rana Goswami, MLA and the former secretary of the ACA Badan Saikia, the former ACA vicepresident and former Ranji player from Dibrugarh Jatin Bora and many former Ranji Trophy players from the city attended the closing ceremony of the Academy.

After the guests and ex-players, as well as one of the two International umpires from Assam, Suren Ram Phukan, were felicitated with the traditional `Gamocha', the inaugural speech was delivered by Nandan Bezbaruah, ACA secretary and he made a special mention of the coaches who rendered selfless service for the past month. "It is because of them that the camp was conducted so successfully," he said. The function was presided over by Brojen Gohain, ACA Vice- President while Dilip Choudhury, assistant secretary, ACA proposed a vote of thanks.

Fifty two players were selected initially of which 32 were kept to the end of the camp. They were all given certificates and a T-shirt.