Indian news round-up

Chopra axed from North Zone side: Indian offspinner Nikhil Chopra finds himself in limbo. After being dropped from the Indian side from the one-dayers on the instruction of the BCCI president AC Muthiah, he now finds himself being axed from the North Zone Deodhar and Duleep Trophy squads as well. A North Zone selector said "Nikhil Chopra has been left out from both the sides but it has nothing to do with instructions from the Board. He has been omitted because he has not been in the best of form lately."

Punjab's Vikram Rathour will lead the side while Indian wicketkeeper Vijay Dahiya will be his deputy. The selectors Madanlal, Aman Kumar, Anurag Thakur, Ashok Singh, Squadron Leader S Bhatnagar, Bhupinder Singh Sr and Sunil Dev attended the selection committee meeting on Sunday at New Delhi to pick the squad. North Zone will take on South Zone from January 4 to 7 in their first league encounter.

The squad for the Deodhar Trophy:

Vikram Rathour (capt), Vijay Dahiya (v-capt), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Sanghvi, Amit Bhandari, Ashish Nehra, Pradeep Chawla (all Delhi), Dinesh Mongia, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Pankaj Dharmani, Gagandeep Singh (all Punjab) and Padamjeet Sherawat (Haryana).

For Duleep Trophy:

Vikram Rathour (Capt), Vijay Dahiya (v-capt), Akash Chopra, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Sanghvi, Ashish Nehra (all Delhi), Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Mongia, Sharandeep Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Gagandeep Singh (all Punjab), Parinder Sharma (Haryana), Rajeev Nayyar (Himachal) and Surinder Singh (J&K). The manager of the side is former Delhi player Mannu Nayar.

The BCCI anti-corruption commissioner K Madhavan in a press statement issued said in Chennai that "In the programme entitled 'Encounter' in Zee News which was telecast on Dec 10, that he mentioned to me the name of some member of the BCCI who had introduced him to a bookie and also the names of the members of the BCCI who are involved in the allegations enquired into the CBI and me is not correct."

Madhavan also said that in the statement recorded before him by Prabhakar and which was signed by him, the Delhi player who has been banned for five years did not mention about any such member of the BCCI either in writing or verbally. Madhavan said "the only name Prabhakar had taken with him was Prakash Kelkar who according to Prabhakar was of BCCI, Mumbai and that he had introduced him in 1994 to a person known as 'Mashaal'. Madhavan added that he found out that Kelkar was not from BCCI but was a member of the Mumbai Cricket Association.

Madhya Pradesh's Amay Khurasiya will lead Central Zone in both the Duleep Trophy and the Deodhar Trophy cricket tournaments, the Zone's convener Jyoti Bajpai announced in New Delhi on Sunday.

The teams: Duleep Trophy : Amay Khurasiya (Capt), Mohd Kaif ( V.Capt), Gagan Khoda, Amit Pagnis, Jai Prakash Yadav, Devendra Bundela, Raja Ali, Yere Goud, Abhey Sharma, Murali Kartik, Narendra Hirwani, Rahul Kanwat, Kulamani Parida, Ashish Winston Zaidi, Shalabh Srivastava and Rohit Jhalani. Stand Bye: Jyoti Yadav, Santosh Sahu, Abbas Ali, Nikhil Doru, Chandershekhar Atram and Manoj Mudgal.

For Deodhar Trophy: Amay Khurasiya (Capt), Mohd Kaif ( V.Capt), Gagan Khoda, Amit Pagnis, Jai Prakash Yadav, Sanjay Bangar, Devendra Bundela, Raja Ali, Murali Kartik, Rahul Kanwat, Ankit Srivastav , Nikhil Doru, Amit Deshpande, Tejinder Pal Singh, Zakir Hussain and Shalabh Srivastava. Stand Bye : P.Krishan Kumar, Santosh Sahu, Abbas Ali, Manoj Mudgal and Chandrashekhar Atram.

The ICC match referee for the India-Zimbabwe onedayers Barry Jarman had a nightmarish experience in Kanpur on Sunday when a furious mob smashed his car as they did not get tickets for the 4th ODI played at Green Park, Kanpur. Both Jarman and his wife escaped unhurt.

Talking to the media after the incident, the 64- year-old former Australian wicketkeeper who was inside the car along with his wife said "It was very frightening and could have been worse. As we approached the stadium gates, a group of people came charging towards our car. They converged on us. First, they started pushing the car, then they bashed the roof of the vehicle and the bonnet. A couple of the them tried to enter the car through the window." He added that "suddenly I saw two rocks coming from behind. Luckily, we escaped. Our driver drove off"

Vinayak Mane of Mumbai will lead the West Zone under-19 team for the CK Nayudu trophy tournament beginning Dec 31 at Cuttack. The 15-member team was announced by West Zone convenor Ratnakar Shetty in Pune on Sunday. The selection committee comprising Mahendra Rajdev (Chairman, Saurashtra), Dr Nitin Shirodkar (Mumbai), Raju Mehta (Maharashtra), Bharat Sawant (Baroda) and Rajesh Patel (Gujarat), along with Shetty deliberated about the team composition.

Shetty stated that West Zone would play its match against South Zone from January 4 to 6, 2001 at Cuttack. Prior to its departure for Cuttack, the team will undergo a conditioning camp in the last week of December at Mumbai, he added. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Cricket Association joint secretary Avinash Ghatpande will be the manager of the West Zone team for the Deodhar Trophy match to be played at Kanpur from December 18.

The team: Vinayak Mane (capt, Mumbai), Parthiv Patel (vice-captain, wicket-keeper, Gujarat), Bimal Joshi (Baroda), Kashinath Khadkikar (Maharashtra), Vinit Indulkar, Bhavin Thakkar (both Mumbai), rohan Dharwat (Maharashtra), Jaideo Shah (Saurashtra), Charudatta Kul-karni, Kiran Adhav (both Maharashtra), Hitush Bachani, Irfan Pathan (both Baroda), Siddharth Trivedi (Gujarat), Uday Karkera (Mumbai) and Salil Yadav (Gujarat). Manager: Vilas Godbole (Mumbai).

The schedule: Dec 31-2 Jan: East Zone vs Central Zone, Jan 4 to 6: West Zone vs South Zone at Cuttack, and Winners of Match 1 vs North Zone. Jan 8 to 10: Winners of Match 2 vs Winners of Match 3 (Final). All the matches will be played at Cuttack.