Indian news round-up

The International Cricket Council (ICC) in an official media release on Monday announced that former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar had been appointed the chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee during its annual conference. Gavaskar is to succeed former West Indian great Sir Clyde Walcott.

Apart from Gavaskar, the ICC has also appointed Andrew Eade as the successor to Ross Turner as the ICC Development Manager. Andrew Eade has been the Development Manager for the East Asia Pacific Region of the ICC since 1999. Tunku Imran of Malaysia has been elected the Chairman of the ICC Associate Members along with Jimmy Ryani from Kenya and Rene van Ierschot of Holland.

While Eshan Mani will continue as the Chairman of the ICC Finance and Marketing Committee, no appointment has been made for the ICC Developement committee since a full review of the committee is being sought.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) executive board, consisting of the nine Test playing nations and three associate members on Monday decided to appoint Sir Paul Condon, a retired head of the metropolitan Police in London, as the Director of the ICC's anti-corruption unit.

On his appointment, Condon said: "I am looking forward to getting involved in this very important project for cricket. However, before taking on this assignment, I require assurance on three important issues. I want to make sure there was a resolve in world cricket and in the Boards to to face up to this challenge. There should be independent reporting lines on any findings. Sufficient resources should be made available.'' He added ``Having met the President and senior officers of ICC, I am satisfied on all three counts. To use a sporting analogy, the task will not be a sprint but a marathon and I am determined that the outcome will be to restore public faith in world cricket."

While the recent match fixing allegations put forth by the UCBSA chief Ali Bacher has been refered to Lord Griffiths to establish an official inquiry under the terms of the Code of Conduct Commission as a matter of priority, the general allegations regarding betting will be refered to Condon.

The Senior Superintendent of Police in Haldwani (UP), Akhilesh Mehrotra said on Monday that a fresh cheating case has been filed against former Indian all-rounder Manoj Prabhakar with a local police station.

Speaking to an Indian news agency, Mehrotra said that a First Information Report (FIR) had been filed against Prabhakar and Divya Nautiyal, Director of the Apace India Finance company, by a certain Gopal Singh. He alleged that the company had failed to return his money even after the maturity date.

Mehrotra said that a case of cheating against Prabhakar had already been registered at Haldwani police station and that a police team has been sent to Delhi in connection with the case. He added that Prabhakar's name had also surfaced during an investigation in another case against the Apace India Finance company earlier.