Indian news round-up

Impressed by the methods of coaching adopted at the Elf Academy, the chairman of the Malaysian Cricket Association Prince Tunku Imran has invited former Indian captain Dilip Balwant Vengsarkar to coach in Malaysia.

While speaking at a function hosted in his honour by MidDay publications at the Turf Club in Mumbai on Monday, Tunku Imran said that he was impressed by the manner in which Vengsarkar conducted the academy and felt that the former Indian captain could help Malaysia attain Test status in 20 years. Tunku Imran is in Mumbai with the junior Malaysian squad which is playing matches in this country.

The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has included the Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, in the State Ranji team for the forthcoming East Zone league matches against Orissa and Bihar slated to be played at the Eden Gardens from December 28 to 31 and January 3 to 6 respectively.

The Telegraph reported that Ganguly, though an integral part of the Bengal team, has not signed up with any club this season. The newspaper added that the CAB has set a deadline of January 15 for him to sign up.

The team: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Devang Gandhi, Utpal Chatterjee, Srikant Kalyani, Rohan Gavaskar, Shiv Sankar Pal, Sourashis Lahiri, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Aurijit Basu, Wrichik Mazumder, Deep Dasgupta, Amitava Banerjee, Sabir Ali and Alokendu Lahiri.

The South Zone selection committee which met at the MA Chidambaram stadium on Tuesday named Hyderabad's Arjun Yadav as the skipper of South Zone team for the CK Nayudu Trophy inter-zonal tournament matches commencing at Cuttack from December 31. South Zone, which has drawn a bye, take on West Zone in the semifinal from January 4 to 6.

The team: NA Yadav (captain), TS Suman, P Shashank Nag, A Khadri, Y Gnaneswara Rao, ASK Varma, M Taher Hussain, M Faiq, DA Chougule, STR Binny, SV Lazarus, M Dharmichand, S Vidyuth, VS Suri, L Balaji and Aneesh Kumar. Stand Byes: AT Rayudu, G Shankara Rao, PAVN Raju, BMV Uthappa, G Vignesh and HTS Rao.