Indian news round-up

Indian Sports Minister SS Dhindsa, who has never missed an opportunity to express his unhappiness at the functioning of the Board of Control for Cricket in India ever since the match fixing scandal broke, has again complained about the attitude of the BCCI towards the inquiry into the scam.

``I had some reservations against the Board officials. They were not responding to our queries properly and their attitude was not positive. They were also adopting delaying tactics but they met me recently and assured me that in future they will co-operate with the Sports Ministry,'' Dhindsa told a TV programme.

Dhindsa however denied that there was a tussle between his Ministry and the BCCI. ``My aim was not to interfere in the functioning of an autonomous body but when the scandal broke the whole nation was outraged. Members cutting across party lines in Parliament demanded a thorough inquiry and so I had to order the CBI to look into the matter,'' said Dhindsa.

The CBI has begun scrutinising the documents seized by the income tax authorities from the premises of cricketers, officials and bookies during the country wide search last month, according to agency sources.

Detectives of the special crime branch were scrutinising some sensitive documents recovered and IT officials were providing necessary assistance to them to verify whether they had any relevance to the match fixing controversy, the sources said.

According to reports, the CBI was also closely examining the bank accounts of Mukesh Gupta, alleged by former South African captain Hansie Cronje as the man who offered him money to throw a Test at Kanpur in 1996.

Leicestershire were 286/8 at close on the first day yesterday in their match in the PPP Healthcare County Championship, against Yorkshire at Leicester. Darren Maddy and Aftab Habib scored half centuries after Leicestershire won the toss and batted on Wednesday. Batting at No.8, Anil Kumble made 19 inclusive of a four and a six before he was stumped by Guy off Fischer.

Meanwhile Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid begin their head to head clash at Old Trafford today as Lancashire square off in their four day game against Kent.