Indian news round-up

The National Cricket Academy (NCA) Director Hanumant Singh in a letter to the academy chairman Raj Singh Dungarpur on Monday announced the induction of five of the junior trainees into the the list of senior trainees. He also added that they would have to report to the academy in Bangalore by May 14.

He said that Mumbai's Swapnil Hazare, Nikhil Kulkarni, Haryana's Joginder Sharma, Delhi's Nitin Agarwal and Mrityunjay Tripathi who were originally in the 21-member juniors list have been promoted to the senior trainees' list. The NCA has been functioning from Bangalore since May 1 with their first batch of 24 trainees.

Former India opening batsman Navjot Singh Sidhu refused to either confirm or deny that he was Manoj Prabhakar's room mate during the 1994 match when the alleged bribe was offered to Prabhakar.

Speaking to an Indian newspaper, Sidhu said ``I don't want to comment on it.'' He also denied comments on whether Prabhakar was looking at him for testimony on his allegations.

Prabhakar was the first Indian cricketer who revealed that he had been offered a bribe to under-play during a match in the The Singer Cup tournament held in Sri Lanka in 1994.

Former India opening batsman Anshuman Gaekwad negated reports that he would replace the present team coach Kapil Dev for the forth coming Asia Cup in Dhaka from May 28 to June 8. Gaekwad was speaking of the reports that if Kapil pulls out, he might have to step in ahead of the present junior team coach Roger Binny, who is at present occupied with the National Cricket Academy.

Speaking to an Indian web site, from Baroda, he said ``All this talk of my going to Dhaka as India coach is nonsense. The Board has not contacted me about it and I have no knowledge of such a move.''

Gaekwad also denied reports that he might also be invited for the 10- day conditioning camp in Pune which begins on May 15. He said ``You tell me, how is this possible? As far as I know, Kapil is the coach of the Indian team.''

The three day match between the visiting Kenya XI and Baroda CA XI at the GSFC Grounds in Baroda from May 4 to May 6 ended in a tame draw.

Winning the toss Kenyans managed to put up only 166 in 75.2 overs in their first essay. KO Otieno with 43 was the top scorer in the other wise low scoring innings. Baroda's VN Buch with 4 for 58 and HS Modi with 4 for 47 ran through the middle and lower order of the Kenyan line up.

In reply, Baroda put up 234 for 4 with two fine knocks from Indian probable to Asia Cup JJ Martin (104) and SS Parab (62). Kenya in it's second innings managed to bat through the third day of the match struggled to the score of 146 for the loss of eight wickets. Baroda's VN Buch with match figures of 7 for 84, was the best bowler.

Mumbai Pacer Paras Mhambrey beat Kenya's Thomas Odoyo to win the Vijay Manjrekar Memorial single wicket tournament at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana Ground in Mumbai on Sunday.

Batting first, Mhambrey scored 30 runs in the alloted three overs with the help of four boundaries. Odoyo started well by scoring ten runs in first over but was dismissed in the very first ball of the next. Having to score 17 runs in the last over, he managed only five runs thus falling well short of the target.

In the Semi finals, Mhambrey beat former Mumbai and India opener Lalchand Rajput by 25 runs while Odoyo overcame the challenge of Vinod Raghavan.