Indian news round-up

It may turn out to be a wet Asia Cup tournament in Bangladesh if one goes by the weather report. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) expressed fears on Thursday that rains may disrupt the matches beginning on May 28. In the first match of the competition holders Sri Lanka take on hosts Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board president Sabre Chowdhury said "It has been raining every day for the last few days and if it continues, I am afraid it may wash out the opening encounter between defending champions Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on Sunday." The BCB grounds chief said "If we get two to three sunny hours the ground will be ready for play" and added that the groundsmen were working overtime to flush the water from the field.

Indian coach Kapil Dev expressed the need of top players in the administration of the Indian Cricket Board and said that the lack of sportsmen in administration had affected the game in the country. He said this in an interview with former Indian captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi during the launch of a cricket website go4cricket.com in New Delhi. The former Indian captain said "The board should consist of 50-60 per cent players and rest could be bureaucrats and politicians. But at the moment, it is 99 per cent businessmen, bureaucrats and politicians. There are no sportsmen, no cricketers."

Replying to a question on whether he wants to be part of the administration, Kapil replied "It is up to them to decide whether they want to bring in professional thinking. If fresh ideas do not come in, the game will suffer." Kapil appreciated the board for doing a "fantastic job" in commercialising cricket. He added "They have done well on that side. But I think they have to do a good job on the cricket ground also."

The National Cricket Academy (NCA) director Hanumant Singh said in Bangalore on Wednesday that "three of the trainees would leave shortly for Australia to train for six weeks". It is in a programme chart laid out by NCA consultant and Australian Cricket Academy director Rodney Marsh. Hanumant Singh said Orissa's Shiv Sundar Das, Indian under-19 captain Mohd. Kaif and Tamil Nadu's run machine Sridharan Sriram are the three trainees chosen by the Gavaskar-Border Foundation for the training programme.

The former Indian player added that four medium pacers - left arm seamers Zaheer Khan (Baroda) and Shalabh Sriwastava (UP), Kerala's Tinu Youhannan and Prasanth Chandran who are part of the NCA, have been inducted into the MRF Pace Foundation. One trainee Laxmi Ratan Shukla who had a leg injury had to leave for home, Hanumant said "Whether he will report again is uncertain. In that case we have to find a suitable replacement shortly".

WorldTel chief Mark Mascarenhas said in an interview to a TV channel that his company was contemplating legal action "in the next few days" against those making "violent and baseless allegations" holding his company responsible for Doordarshan ending up paying a higher amount in the bid to bag rights for the 1998 ICC knock-out trophy in Dhaka. He said ""We are considering legal action and in next few days you will know more about this."

Mascarenhas denied the allegations of a former official of Prasar Bharati Arun Agarwal. When asked whether he thought DD paid too much in the deal, Mascarenhas said: "I believe they did, as the records prove" and added "I would have paid no more than five million." Asked to comment whether match fixing has affected the game, the television producer said "It definitely has had a big impact but if the Indian team began winning, things should look up."