Indian news round-up

S Venkatraghavan and AV Jayaprakash, the two Indians on the Umpires Panel of the International Cricket Council (ICC) will attend the special meeting of the panel which has been convened at London.

The meeting is scheduled to be held on August 28 and 29 and is to discuss the revision of the Laws of Cricket which will come into force from October 1. The other umpires on the panel who are to attend the meeting are: Riazuddin and Athar Zaidi (Pakistan), Peter Manuel and BC Cooray (Sri Lanka), Rudi Koertzen and Dave Orchard (South Africa), David Shepherd, Peter Willey, John Hampshire and George Sharp (England), Doug Cowie and Steve Dunne (New Zealand), Ian Robinson and Russell Tiffin (Zimbabwe), Steve Bucknor and Ed Nicholls (West Indies) and Daryl Harper and Darrell Hair (Australia).

India's former representatives on the International Cricket Council (ICC) umpires panel, VK Ramaswamy and SK Bansal are to officiate in the three-nation Singapore Challenge slated to be held at the Kallang Cricket Ground from August 20 to 27.

The tri-nation tourney will feature Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa. India were one of the participants originally but the Board of Control for Cricket in India had pulled out of the tournament reasoning that the Singapore tournament did not figure in the original list of fixtures for the season.

Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble revealed in an interview to an English TV channel that he had not devoted much time to his batting and that was the reason why he had not got tall scores in the international arena.

Kumble, who is currently in England playing county cricket for Leicestershire, said ``Twice I was close to a hundred in Test cricket but got run out but I am still keen on getting a century against my name.''

Reliving the historic ten wicket haul at the Ferozshah Kotla, Kumble said ``I was totally dazed. The first thing that came to my mind was we had won the match and the realisation of this feat dawned on me when the teammates congratulated me.''

The Hyderabad Under-15 team coach, Noel Carr said on Monday that he was thrilled over the selection of Abhinav Kumar and Tirupati Rayudu in the Indian team for the Costcutter World Under-15 Challenge to be held in England from July 30.

Speaking to an Indian newspaper in Hyderabad, Carr said ``Abhinav is the best wicketkeeper at the junior level as he has shown at the Asian Championship in Malaysia recently, where he won the `Best Wicketkeeper' award.'' He added ``Rayudu is an excellent player.'' Rayudu trains at the academy run by Vijay Paul and the former Hyderabad player echoed Carr's sentiments. He said ``Rayudu has done well and his selection is justified. He should not have any problems in England since he is a very good backfoot player.''

On his part, Abhinav was confidence personified. He said ``I am positive and will strive to give 100 percent. I am looking forward to better performances.'' Rayudu said he was feeling good about his selection.