Indian news round-up

Former Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar along with coach Kapil Dev arrived in Pune on Sunday for the 10-day long conditioning camp for the forthcoming Asia Cup. Earlier the two played a match in Mumbai to raise funds for the drought affected citizens of Gujarat and Rajastan.

The camp probables arrived in the city in batches. The first to land were wicket-keeper Nayan Mongia and Jacob Martin who were later followed by the players from the South. Ajay Jadeja and Hemang Badani of Tamil Nadu are likely to arrive for the camp tomorrow. The Selection Committee Chairman, Chandu Borde was present at the hotel to receive the players.

The Indian team for the tournament is to be selected on May 23, after skipper Sourav Ganguly arrives at the camp a day earlier. Ganguly along with Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble are playing English county cricket.

Punjab Cricket Association's (PCA) secretary MP Pandove at a press conference in Chandigarh on Sunday alleged that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had withheld its subsidy to the association to the tune of Rs.2 crores, in an attempt to penalise the state association.

Pandove said ``The BCCI is bent upon penalising PCA in the wake of IS Bindra's recent allegations. The cricket board has not even given us date of availability of Indian team for our golden jubilee celebrations.'' Present on the occasion, IS Bindra said that he had been authorised by the PCA to take legal action on the issue and take it up the Union Sports Ministry. Bindra also added that he would take up the issue of discrimination against the association players.

Pandove was speaking after the PCA officials' meeting in Chandigarh on Sunday. The meeting was convened to decide on the dates of various tournaments of the forthcoming season like the Katoch Shield, Dhruv Pandove Trophy, ML Markan Trophy and the JP Attray tournament.

Former Indian captain Bishan Singh Bedi feels that the real people behind match fixing are the cricket officials and the administrators. Bedi expressed his views while speaking at a seminar on corruption at the Bradlaugh International Centre in Chandigarh on Sunday.

Bedi believed that only players have been targeted during the recent scandal since they get the maximum mileage in the media. He criticised the former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president IS Bindra for pulling Kapil Dev into the ongoing controversy without having any concrete evidence.

Bedi also lashed out at the International Cricket Council (ICC) for not acting upon the allegations of match-fixing for a long time. Bedi said that the image of cricket had received a rude shock and hoped that the game would overcome it.

Indian middle order bat Rahul Dravid scored a crucial half-century to lay the platform for Kent to salvage a draw against Surrey in the PPP Healthcare County Championship Division One match at Kennington Oval in London on Sunday.

Set a target of 320, Kent lost four quick wickets with the score at 45. Dravid who was watching the slide on the other side played a classic innings of 71 runs off 137 balls. Along with Mark Ealham (83 runs off 194 balls), he added 102 runs for the fifth wicket. The Karnataka batsman who has been in fine touch played an innings of character in the company of Ealham to raise a glimmer of hope for Kent. He struck six hits to the fence before perishing to Bicknell. PA Nixon (50 runs off 104 balls) then joined Ealham and the two added 53 runs. After the fall of Ealham, Nixon managed to play out the remaining overs in the company of the tailenders to salvage a draw for Kent.

Earlier Dravid had picked up two wickets for 16 runs in Surrey's first innings including that of England opener Alec Stewart and also scored an unbeaten 44 in his first essay.