Indian news round-up

Champs India play England in U-15 World Cup opener

Defending champions India will meet England in the opening game of the under-15 World Cup in Britain this summer. The match will be played at Eton College on July 30. Both teams have been drawn in group A with Holland and West Indies. South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe will compete in group B at Wellington College.

Australia and New Zealand are not sending teams as the summer tournament did not fit in with their plans.

Tournament director Ken Lake said the competition will be decided in a final at Lord's on August 10.

The 1996 competition, which attracted a crowd of more than 10,000 for India's defeat of Pakistan in the final at Lord's, saw the emergence of Hazan Raza, who set a Test record when he made his debut for Pakistan aged 14.

Dravid among Wisden's five cricketers of the year

After his superb form with the bat in last year's World Cup in England, it was always on the cards that Rahul Dravid would be on the short list of candidates for Wisden's five cricketers of the year. And sure enough, the latest edition of the Cricketers' Bible, scheduled to be out on the stands in London on Thursday, does include the 27-year-old Indian in the honours list.

An Indian player figuring in the annual Wisden list is quite rare. And Dravid now joins other Indian greats like CK Nayudu (1933), Vijay Merchant (1937), Vinoo Mankad (1947), MAK Pataudi (1968), BS Chandrasekhar (1972), Sunil Gavaskar (1980), Kapil Dev (1983), Mohinder Amarnath (1984), DB Vengsarkar (1987), Md Azharuddin (1991) and Anil Kumble (1995). Apart from Kumble, who was acknowledged for his feats in county cricket, the others were honoured for their deeds for the Indian touring team.

Dravid scored 461 runs in eight matches to finish as the leading batsman in the World Cup. The others in the list in Wisden 2000 are Chris Cairns (New Zealand), Lance Klusener (South Africa), Tom Moody (Australia) and Saqlain Mushtaq (Pakistan).

Robin Singh to lead Tamil Nadu

Thirty-six year old Indian all rounder Robin Singh returns to lead Tamil Nadu in their Ranji Trophy semifinal against Mumbai to be played at Mumbai from April 11 to 15.

Robin was appointed captain for the season but he has had to miss many matches since he has been pre-occupied with national duty. Sridharan Sharath who has been leading the side in his absence will be the vice captain.

The team: Robin Singh (captain), S Sharath (vice captain), S Ramesh, Aashish Kapoor, Hemang Badani, S Mahesh, J Gokulakrishnan, JR Madanagopal, S Sriram, T Kumaran, Reuben Paul, Rajath Bhatia, Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan, Tanveer Jabbar and Satyajit Medappa and Vasanth Saravanan. Coach: K Bharath Kumar. Manager: S Kesavan.