Indian news round-up

The charity match organised by former England Prime Minister and the president of the Surrey County Cricket Club, John Major, to fund the construction of a new museum at the Oval in London received a further setback when Indian star batsman and the captain of the Asian XI, Sachin Tendulkar pulled out of the match after being affected with chicken pox.

The other doubtful starter for the match is the Australian leg spinner Shane Warne. With Tendulkar out of the match the Asian XI is led by the former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram. Only last week Pakistan captain Moin Khan and fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar pulled out of the match and were replaced by Sri Lanka's Aravinda De Silva and Indian wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia.

The ruling group led by Jagmohan Dalmiya retained power at the Annual General Meeting of the Cricket Association of Bengal which was held at BC Roy Club House at the Eden Gardens on July 28. The ruling group won all the posts for which elections were held. Debdas Banerjee and Nirmal Mukherjee remain the Joint Secretaries, polling 83 and 77 votes respectively. Samar Pal of the rival group polled 52 votes only.

Amitava Banerjee was elected Treasurer, defeating Samar Kar by 42 votes. Banerjee polled 78 votes while Kar polled only 36 votes. Sushil Shome (84), Amulya Ratan Saha (83), Ambika Banerjee (84) and Dipal Chowdhury (107) were elected vice-presidents. Manindra Kumar Sen and Barid Baran Sarkar of the rival group polled 19 and 53 votes respectively.

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly scored a sedate 28 as Lancashire put up a fighting 267 in their first innings against Yorkshire in the PPP Healthcare County Championship Division One match at Headingley on Friday.

Put in to bat, Lancashire were given a good start by openers Michael Atherton and John Crawley who added 45 runs. Then Andy Flintoff joined Atherton to take the score to 78. Ganguly, who came in at the fall of Flintoff's wicket, carried on the good work before he was caught behind by Richard Blakey off Mathew Hoggard. But the Lancashire innings got the necessary boost from keeper Warren Hegg (75) to put up a fighting total.

The other two Indians Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble had a rather quiet day as Kent lost the toss and fielded against Derbyshire at Canterbury and Leicestershire opted to go into the match against West Indies at Leicester without leg spinner Anil Kumble.