Indian news round-up

Ganguly makes a lacklustre start

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly had a lacklusture start on his debut for Lancashire in the English county season even though the team made a heady start with an eight wicket win over Nottinghamshire in the Benson and Hedges Cup.

The southpaw lasted for just six balls before Andy Harris had him caught by Jason Gallian at first slip for a duck. Then Ganguly bruised his wrist trying to go for a return catch offered by Usman Afzaal. Ganguly also bowled his quota of ten overs giving away 38 runs without taking a wicket.

Lancashire captain John Crawley said "I have every sympathy with him. He has just arrived in the country and has had to cope with the cold weather, and he got a very good ball." He added, "it can happen to anyone. We are certainly not worried about it. He is a great batsman."

Ganguly had better luck in his next game against Yorkshire in the same tournament. He took three for 31 off ten overs but scored only five off 21 balls. Yorkshire however won the game by four wickets.

BCCI gives green signal for Yashpal benefit match

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has given the go-ahead for the benefit match for former Indian cricketer Yashpal Sharma on the condition that the match involves only Indian cricketers. Earlier the BCCI had cancelled a series of benefit matches involving present Indian and South African cricketers.

Speaking to a news agency in New Delhi, Yashpal said ``the Board secretary faxed me an official letter giving me permission to go ahead with the tie after I sought a clarification because other matches were cancelled.''

The day-night match is to be played at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on April 26 between a Kapil Dev XI and a Tendulkar XI. K Srikkanth, Chetan Sharma, Manoj Prabhakar, Vinod Kambli and a host of others will participate in the match. Skipper Saurav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid who are away playing in the English county will however not be playing.

Waugh to interact with students on leprosy

Australian captain Steve Waugh, who is to arrive in Calcutta on April 19 in connection with the opening of the Nivedita house will also have an inter-active session with students of city schools at the CCFC grounds on Friday. He is to largely dwell on the subject of leprosy patients.

The inter-active session is being organised by the Calcutta Girls Foundation as part of their fund raising programme for the Nivedita House, the girls wing at Udayan. The registration fee for the session will be Rs 200 per child.

Apart from the chat session, the children will have the opportunity to get autographs from Waugh and also get photographed with him.