Indian news round-up

Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble on Friday signed an endorsement with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for a new ad campaign to promote vegetarianism. Kumble has now joined a select band of celebrities like former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, tennis great Martina Navratilova and Hollywood actors Kim Bassinger, Pamela Anderson and Woody Harrelson for promoting vegetarianism.

A vegetarian himself, Kumble said ``Vegetarianism saves animals' lives and can't be beaten for maintaining a muscular body and building endurance'' and added ``Vegetarian food contains all the vitamins and protein you need to be at your best and is free of all the fat, cholesterol and toxins found in meat.''

PETA has been campaigning in foreign countries for a ban on Indian leather goods and Kumble's endorsement has come at a time when the Indian government and the leather industry are fighting hard to ward off the threat posed by PETA. Several leading stores across the globe have stopped marketing Indian leather goods on grounds of cruelty to animals in India.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday questioned Rahul Mehra and Shantanu Sharma, who have filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court alleging arbitrary and non-transparent functioning of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The two were requested by the CBI to apper before its special crime branch to shed more light on the match fixing scandal.

Speaking to a news agency after the questioning in New Delhi, Sharma said ''We have given a broad outline to the agency sleuths about match-fixing and inside details of fixing in grant of TV rights and functioning of the BCCI.''

Sharma said ''we have handed over several documents to them about allotment of television rights for the game and a rough idea about match-fixing in the game. Besides this, we have informed the agency about cricket matches in off-shore countries where the risk of matchfixing was very high.''

Indian middle order batsman Rahul Dravid scored a valuable 37 to help Kent defeat Sussex by three runs in the National League Division One match at Hove on Friday.

Electing to bat, Kent lost both the openers Fulton and Marsh with only seven on the board. Then Dravid joined Alen Wells in a 78 run third wicket partnership to steer Kent to safety. Needing 216 for victory, Sussex had a good start as openers Chris Adams (82) and Richard Montgomerie (65) added 126 runs. Then Australian recruit Michael Bevan (41) could not score the required runs as Sussex ran out of overs.

Meanwhile, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly picked three for 22 and opening the innings for Lancashire scored an unbeaten 47 as Lancashire beat Northamptonshire in a rain restricted National League Division One match at Old Trafford on Friday. Put in to bat Northamptonshire were restricted to 178. Ganguly and former England captain Micheal Atherton (43) put on 73 runs for the first wicket. Then Ganguly with the help of Neil Fairbrother guided Lancashire to 118 for 3 in 25.5 overs before rain restricted play and the match was awarded to Lancashire.