Indian news round-up

A team from the CBI is likely to question ICC's finance committee chairman Ehsan Mani when it arrives in London later this week in connection with investigations into a television telecast rights case. Though there was no official word from CBI, Mani has been quoted in the Sunday Telegraph as saying that he was available for meeting the CBI team if it so desired.

"Nobody has approached me or spoken to me, but obviously if they (CBI) wanted to see me, I'd be happy to meet them," said Mani, who has been heading ICC's finance committee since 1997 and is a hot favourite to become the next president of the ICC. In his capacity as chairman of the finance committee, Mani played a leading part in the negotiations of television rights for the inaugural ICC knock-out tournament in Dhaka in 1998 which is the subject of CBI's investigations. The CBI will use the documents to conduct an audit trail to find out how the television rights were awarded.

Negotiations for the 1998 knock-out tournament TV rights began when the finance committee delegated responsibility to a sub-group. Mani and former ICC chief Barry Richards opened the sealed bids in Monaco in the presence of the ICC's solicitors, Simons and Simons.

Sunday, June 17 was a red letter day for the Assam Cricket Association. It's ambitious project, the Assam Cricket Academy which aims to impart coaching to youngsters in the State in the under-19, under-16 and under-14 group, was launched.

Gautam Roy, Minister of Sports and Social Welfare and former president of the ACA presided over the inauguration. The inaugural speech was given by octogenarian Ranji player and founder secretary of the ACA Pulin Das. Before this, there was a felicitation function for Pulin Das, Gautam Roy, Capt.Robin Bordoloi, MLA, Bolin Bordoloi, Managing Director, Tata Tea and a few other distinguished guests. They were all given a traditional memento. All of them spoke on the occasion and advised the players to be disciplined and dedicated. Most of the former Ranji players of the city were present.

Gautam Roy donated Rs 25,000 to the Academy and made a plea for sponsors to come forward and help the Academy. The Academy was formally launched by Gautam Roy bowling a ball to Pulin Das. Then chief coach Kamal Das and the other coaches of the Academy Manoj Bhagawati, Mukut Das and Rajib Rajbongshi gave a few tips to the 26 players present out of around 50 players expected to attend the coaching.

The 45-day coaching camp at the zonal cricket academy concluded at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) ground in Nagpur on Sunday.

In all, 21 players from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Vidarbha were the beneficiaries of the camp which imparted advanced coaching, modern physical training through yoga and swimming.

The VCA zonal academy was one of the eight academies set up by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for young players.