Indian news round-up

In the absence of the leading stars of the state team, the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) side for the KSCA Diamond Jubilee all-India Invitation tournament slated to be held in Bangalore from August 1, wears a very different look and has a new captain in Anand Katti.

The Karnataka team is currently on a short tour of Kenya and the stars like Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad, Sunil Joshi and Dodda Ganesh will not be seen in action during the tournament. Anil Kumble, the regular captain and Rahul Dravid are playing county cricket in England.

The team: Anand Katti (Captain), BA Vinay, Shyam Ponnappa, Vijay Madiyalkar, K Sriram, KN Ramesh, Sudhindra Shinde, Rajshekar Shambal (wicketkeeper), Manoj Malthora, Sunil Kumar, G Chaitra, Prajwal Raj, AR Mahesh, Dharmichand, Amith Kumar. Manager: SMH Kirmani.

Thirteen teams are taking part in the Karnataka State Cricket Association's Diamond Jubilee all-India invitation Knock out Tournament for the Coromandal Cement Trophy scheduled to be held in Bangalore from August 1 to 19. Three of them, India Cements, Indian Airlines and the KSCA team have been given a bye to the quarterfinals.

The first round of matches would be held from August 1 to 3. The winners of the first round play the quarterfinals from August 5 to 7. The first semifinal is to be played from August 9 to 11 and the second from August 13 to 15. The final is to be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium from August 17 to 19.

League matches: August 1-3: India Pistons v National Cricket Academy-1. Andhra Cricket Association v MRF. August 1 to 3: Hyderabad Cricket Association v NCA-2. BPL SC v Kerala Cricket Association. August 5-7: Chemplast v ONGC. Quarter Finals: August 5-7: KSCA XI v Winner of India Pistons v National Cricket Academy-1. Indian Airlines v Winner of Andhra Cricket Association v MRF. India Cements v Winner of Hyderabad Cricket Association v NCA-2. August 9-11: Winner of BPL SC v Kerala Cricket Association and Winner of Chemplast v ONGC.

What's a basketball coach doing at a cricket centre? Sounds unusual but Craig Msceinck, a physical trainer associated with the National Basketball Association (NBA), paid a visit to the Bournvita Cricket Academy, run by the former Indian opening batsman Arun Lal.

Msceinck, who is also associated with Athletes in Action, was in Calcutta for a two day stint with the trainees of the Bournvita academy. He dwelt in detail on the finer aspects of acquiring the optimal fitness level for a cricketer. Even a steady drizzle did not deter the trainer from his schedule as he conducted a lecture session at length indoors.

Msceinck, who is on the mission of familiarizing Athletes in Action's efforts in sports training, gave away a compact disc detailing the training programme to be followed by the trainees before leaving on Tuesday.

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly played second fiddle to Andrew Flintoff as the pair compiled a match-winning stand of 190 in Lancashire's NatWest Trophy quarter-final against Surrey at The Oval on Wednesday. Flintoff was unbeaten on 135 off 110 balls including 19 fours and four sixes. Chasing 211 to win, Lancashire recovered from the setback of nought for one after seeing England opener Michael Atherton have his off-stump knocked back by fast bowler Alex Tudor for a third ball duck.

Amidst Flintoff's pyrotechnics, there was no need for any heroics from Ganguly. He produced the occasional class stroke lofting Adam Hollioake for four to long-on for example. Otherwise he was content to be the junior partner, his 50 off 84 balls including six fours. However, one ball after reaching his fifty, Ganguly holed out against Tudor to give Thorpe a catch, leaving captain John Crawley (12 not out) to partner Flintoff to victory with 14 overs to spare.

Earlier Lancashire restricted Surrey to 210 for seven off their 50 overs. Ganguly took the new ball because Lancashire were without injured seam bowlers Peter Martin and Ian Austin. Alec Stewart was opening the batting for Surrey and found Ganguly's gentle medium-pace very much to his liking. The hero of England's successful Triangular series victory struck five fours in Ganguly's opening spell including a couple of superb cover-drives. Ganguly's final figures were 8-1-45-0.