Indian news round-up

Marsh quits as Australian selector to take up role in India: Former Australian opening batsman Geoff Marsh quit on Wednesday as a national selector to take up a consulting role with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He was replaced by David Boon, Australia's fourth highest Test run-scorer with 7,422 runs, who currently works for the Tasmanian Cricket Association. Marsh and Boon were a long time opening pair for Australia.

Marsh, who was the coach when Australia won the World Cup in England last year, had been a front runner to take over as the first foreign coach of the Indian cricket team but the job instead went to former New Zealand captain John Wright.

Veteran sports journalist and former sports editor of the Times of India, R Sriman passed away in New Delhi on Wednesday. He was 76. Sriman was in hospital for over a month for a spine problem and was brought home only a few days ago. He suddenly started throwing up blood on Tuesday night and breathed his last in the early hours of Wednesday, according to his daughter Radhika. Sriman is survived by his wife, a son and daughter.

In a distinguished career spanning over four decades, Sriman served as sports editor of the Times of India in New Delhi and had the distinction of covering many international events including the Olympic Games. A versatile writer, Sriman's commentaries on cricket and other sports were followed with keen interest. A leading light of the Sports Journalists Federation of India, he also served as its founder president.

Indian vice captain Rahul Dravid will lead the South Zone team in the Duleep Trophy tournament to be played next month. South Zone open their campaign with a match against North Zone to be played in Andhra from January 4 to 7. Their next match is against West Zone at Ahmedabad from January 18 to 21. South Zone then play East Zone in Agartala from January 25 to 28. Their final match is against Central Zone to be played in Goa from February 1 to 4.

The team was selected in Chennai on Tuesday by members of the South Zone selection committee comprising TA Sekhar (chairman, Tamil Nadu), V Chamundeswarnath (Andhra), Hemant Angle (Goa), Arshad Ayub (Hyderabad), Brijesh Patel (Karnataka) and APM Gopalakrishnan (Kerala).

The team: Rahul Dravid (Karnataka, captain), VVS Laxman (Hyderabad, vice captain), S Ramesh, S Sriram, Hemang badani, Robin Singh, T Kumaran, Aashish Kapoor (all Tamil Nadu), A Nandakishore (Hyderabad), VST Naidu, D Ganesh, Sunil Joshi, Anil Kumble, Vijay Bhardwaj (all Karnataka), KS Sahabuddin (Andhra) and Tinu Yohannan (Kerala). Standbyes: LNP Reddy (Andhra), Tanveer Jabbar and A Anare (Goa), Vanka Pratap and Venkatapathy Raju (Hyderabad).

J Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad (both Karnataka) and NP Singh (Hyderabad) will replace the three pace bowlers who will play in the first two matches. Venkatpathy Raju (Hyderabad) will play in case Anil Kumble is not available.

S Vasanth Saravanan will lead Tamil Nadu in the P Ramachandra Rao Trophy under-22 tournament match against Kerala to be played at the ICL-Guru Nanak college ground in Chennai from December 14 to 16. K Vasudeva Doss will lead Tamil Nadu against Kerala in the V Pattabhiraman under-16 tournament match at the MAC stadium in Chennai from December 14 to 16.

Under-22 squad: Vasanth Saravanan (captain), Rajat Bhatia, Noorul Riaz, S Badrinath, C Hemant Kumar, Sunil Viswanathan (vice captain), R Satish, MR Shinivas, Vikram Kumar (wicketkeeper), Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, L Balaji, K Velmurugan, R Ramkumar, Tanseer Jabbar and SP Lakshmi Kumar. Coach: RM Manoharan.

Under-16 squad: K Vasudeva Doss (captain), Dinesh Kartik (vice captain), MR Muthupandi, I Varun, Kartik Swathy, D Pramod Doss, Graham Mark James, K Anbalagan, Nikhil Krishnan, Robert Vijay Raina, V Sundaramani, N Satish Kumar, S Ramkumar, MP Rajesh and Simon Selvan. Coach: PS Ramesh.