Indian news round-up

The director operations of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Yawar Saeed, said on Sunday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India has confirmed their cricket tour to Pakistan in January next and have asked the PCB to send a fresh itinerary for the proposed visit.

Speaking to a news agency in Islamabad, Saeed said ``The PCB officials, led by chairman Tauqir Zia, held successful negotiations with their Indian counterparts following which India decided to send their senior and under-17 teams to Pakistan.''

Saeed said that after negotiations between the two boards' officials during the International Cricket Council meeting in London, it was decided to organise a tour of the Indian seniors and then a tour of under-17 team for the Junior Asia Cup to be held in Pakistan at the end of July next year. Saeed added that India would be playing three Tests and five One-day Internationals during their January-February 2001 visit to Pakistan.

Nearly 100 teams have registered for the first ever week long indoor cricket tournament for the Core Cup 2000, to be played at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi from July 17. Hari Govind, the organising secretary, said that teams from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are also likely to participate.

Speaking to a news agency, Govind said that the matches will be played on an eight overs a side basis in the preliminary stages and on a 10- overs basis in the quarter-final stage and 12-overs a side in the semifinals. The final will be a 15-overs match.

Govind said that the winning team would receive a cash prize of Rs 25,000, while the runners-up will receive Rs 10,000.

Indian middle order batsman Rahul Dravid was out for only 10 runs as Kent suffered a 54 run defeat at the hands of Somerset in the National League Division One one day match at Maidstone on Sunday.

Set to score 296 runs from 45 overs, Kent lost Dravid cheaply after he opened the innings. Then Mark Ealham and Alan Wells (59) took the score to 148-4 when the latter was out. Captain Matthew Fleming and Matthew Walker took control of the proceedings and Kent were on course to a well deserved win. But both of them were dismissed in the same over by Blackwell who finished with three wickets for 30 runs and that proved to be the turning point.

In the other match of the day, Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble managed to pick up the wicket of Steven Rhodes as rain stopped play in the National League Division One match between Worcestershire and Leicestershire at Worcester. With the rain continuing unabated, the match was abandoned. Worcestershire were 108 for eight wickets off 38 overs when rain halted play.