Indian news round-up

The secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) JY Lele on Wednesday said that the board is to convene a meeting regarding the recent developements in the match-fixing scandal as soon as the Board president AC Muthiah returns to India.

Speaking to a news agency in Baroda, Lele said ``We will take a decision on when to meet to discuss the issue once the President returns on June 4.'' The meeting is significant particularly in the wake of Manoj Prabhakar's sensational revelation of the taped evidence to back his claims of match-fixing.

Former Australian cricketer Dean Jones said on Monday in Brisbane that his company Left Field Solutions is negotiating with an Indian television channel to stage a tournament featuring the world's best domestic teams in India later in the year. He said that the tournament had a fifty percent chance of taking place.

The tournament would bring together the domestic champions from Australia, England, South Africa and India to play a One-day competition. Australia would be represented by Queensland, the Sheffield Shield champions.

Jones said that such a tournament would be the ideal way to blood younger cricketers and added that it was up to a tournament organisers to invite the various other teams if the Indian television company decided to back the event.

The President of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Jagmohan Dalmiya in an official media release in London refuted the claims of an English newspaper that the bidding for the telecast rights of the next two World Cups have been put on hold.The newspaper had alleged that the move was prompted after a connection was suspected between Dalmiya and Zee TV, the second highest bidder.

Dalmiya said, ``The report can best be described as mischievous and maligning. Most of the content was either untrue or written in a manner to twist the facts.'' He added ``There is also no truth in the contention of the Sunday Times that the telecast rights for the next two World Cups were put on hold on the insistence of Lord MacLaurin.''

The ICC president clarified `` The contents of the letter of Lord MacLaurin reproduced in the report were incomplete. In this letter, Lord MacLaurin had expressed his desire to be a member of the Consultative Group, on which no decision has so far been taken. The Consultative Group is very much continuing its work on the rights of the next two World Cups and other events and a teleconference of the group is scheduled tomorrow,'' Dalmiya informed.