Indian news round-up

Former Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) chief Raj Singh Dungarpur on Friday said the Indian team's performance in the ongoing Coca-Cola Cup triangular series in Sri Lanka is very disappointing and "beginning to hurt."

"I don't want to go deep into it but I think skipper Sourav Ganguly is making too many mistakes, which in turn is affecting the team's performance," Dungarpur told PTI in Mumbai.

Dungarpur, who is the National Cricket Academy chairman, said former Australian opening batsman and coach Geoff Marsh will be coaching the Indian under-19 cricket team for the coming season. "Marsh has been entrusted with the job of coaching the India A side, which has a busy schedule this year. John Wright is in charge of the senior team while former Test player Roger Binny is the junior teams' coach. We wanted someone to coach the India A team and I think Marsh is the right man to do that," he added.

The chairman of the Indian cricket selection committee, Chandu Borde said on Friday that failure in the batting department was the main cause of Indian team's dismal performance so far in the ongoing triangular series in Sri Lanka. Borde told PTI over phone from Pune that the performance of the team was "very disappointing" and our batsmen are not applying their mind to the task.

Speaking about the defeat at the hands of New Zealand, the former Test player said, "if they (Indian batsmen) cannot score 201 runs on that pitch then there is nothing anyone can do about it. The bowlers are bowling out the opposition to a small total but our batsmen are failing repeatedly to deliver the goods," he said.

When asked what he thought about Sourav Ganguly's captaincy, Borde shot back by saying "what can the captain do when his batsmen fail to score even 150 runs against a New Zealand attack."

"One expected the youngsters, who came in place of injured Sachin Tendulkar, to grab this opportunity with both the hands but that was not to be. It is really disappointing to note that the Indians are yet to win a match in the series," Borde added.