Indian news round-up

Two members of the anti-corruption unit of the International Cricket Council (ICC) visited the home of Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta in New Delhi on Thursday but failed to persuade him to give evidence, a close associate of Gupta said. Investigators Geoff Rees and Alan Hawkins, who refused to speak to the media, are now expected to travel to Pakistan and Sri Lanka before returning to London.

"Mukesh has said everything he wants to, he stands by what he said, but is not interested in testifying or giving any written statement," the associate told a news agency.

The match-fixing report by the CBI quotes Gupta as saying he paid 5,000 pounds (7,000 dollars) to Stewart during England's tour in 1993 to provide information about the wicket and team composition. Stewart, currently leading England in the absence of the injured Nasser Hussain, has repeatedly denied meeting Gupta or accepting money from any other bookmaker.

The ICC's chief investigator Paul Condon warned last week that he would drop the inquiry against Stewart and other cricketers if Gupta refused to become a witness and provide evidence to the charges made by him. CBI officials, who have not framed any charges against Gupta since the Indian law has no provision to punish match-fixers, said they could not force the bookmaker to testify to the ICC.

Uday Karavadra of Saurashtra will lead the West Zone Cricket Academy (WZCA) in the Zonal Academy tournament to be held in Bangalore from June 28 to July 2.

WZCA's head coach and former Indian captain Nari Contractor said in Mumbai on Friday that two other West Zone trainees Nikhil Rathod of Saurashtra and Yogesh Takwale of Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) have been included in the Combined team, which would be the sixth team to play in the tournament. Teams from the five zonal academies are the other participating sides in the five day competition.

The team: Uday Karavadra (capt) and Padmanabh Jadeja (both Saurashtra), Vimal Joshi, Rakesh Solanki and Yusuf Pathan (all Baroda), Sahil Kukreja, Paul Valthaty and Vinit Indulkar (all Mumbai), Kiran Adhav from Maharashtra, Swapnil Patel, Siddharth Trivedi, Timil Patel and Hardik Parmar (all Gujarat).

Mumbai-based Gayatri Arts on Friday sought a direction from the High Court for the Board of Control for Cricket in India to disclose the amount it had received from International Management Group (IMG) towards sponsorship of clothing, trophy title and logo for the nonleading arm for the Indian cricket team.

In a rejoinder to an affidavit filed by the BCCI in response to its petition challenging the award of a three-year contract to the IMG, Gayatri Arts claimed that the amount paid by IMG was lower than its own offer of Rs 90 crore.

Gayatri Arts promotor Sham Dhumatkar alleged that the BCCI had not disclosed the amount it received from IMG despite such a direction from High Court. Since it had chosen to remain silent on this aspect it was apparent that the IMG had not made the highest offer and hence the BCCI's actions were malafide and based on extraneous consideration, Gayatri Arts contended.

The managing committee of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) has appointed an eight-member cricket improvement committee to be headed by former Test cricketer Madhav Apte.

The committee has been empowered to appoint selection committees and coaches for various Mumbai teams for the 2001-02 season, apart from taking decisions for the development of local cricket in the metropolis, an MCA release said in Mumbai on Thursday.

The other members of the committee include Milind Rege, Raju Kulkarni, Sanjay Manjrekar, Chandrakant Pandit, Lalchand Rajput, Dilip Sardesai and MV Gothoskar, the release added.